A new driver testing agency is to be created by the Department of the Environment within the next two years, following last year's highly critical report from the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The new agency will have its headquarters in Ballina, Co Mayo, and should cut the waiting times faced by tens of thousands of provisional licence holders.
The average waiting time is 12 weeks, though the Dublin testing centres are managing tests within 10 weeks, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Mr Robert Molloy said.
The investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General found that the service had been slow to respond to the increase in demand for tests, that pass rates varied widely around the State, while testers were not meeting productivity targets.
Subsequently, PricewaterhouseCoopers examined a number of options for the service, including leaving matters as they are, full or partial privatisation, or the creation of the new agency.
The consultants also recommended that the number of testing centres should be cut from 53 to 34. So far, the Minister of State has avoided making a decision on this politically sensitive issue.
Legislation will have to be published to set up the new body, while more consultants will be hired to assist in the mechanics of its creation.
"I look forward to the engagement of all parties in this process in a positive fashion. Everyone involved should benefit from being part of a confident, forward-looking driver testing service," the Minister said.
Last night IMPACT, the union that represents the 112 driving testers, welcomed the Government's acceptance of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, though it feared the service would not have enough funds.
"The driver testing service has been grossly underfunded for a number of years and this is reflected in the accommodation used for carrying out tests, the lack of adequate training for staff and poor pay and promotional structures," said IMPACT's assistant general secretary, Ms Louise O'Donnell.
Hiring extra testers will be difficult, she predicted, unless wage rates are significantly improved.
Currently testers earn between £17,000 and £23,000, before overtime and bonuses are taken into account. Driver testers examine nine people per day - two more than their counterparts elsewhere in the European Union, she claimed.
The Automobile Association welcomed the planned improvements, though it warned that testing alone would not improve road safety. "Testing measures ability, not attitudes or behaviour," said the AA's spokesperson, Mr Conor Faughnan.
He was scathing about the different pass rates revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, which showed that 71 per cent passed in Sligo, while just 47 per cent managed to do so in Gorey, Co Wexford.
The statistics led Mr Purcell to conclude that a uniform standard of driving test was not being applied by the Department of the Environment, while some testers had dramatically different pass rates from the average.
"Frankly, the variation is nothing short of ludicrous. There is no way that human nature differs that much," complained Mr Faughnan.
The number of applications for tests rose from 100,000 in 1995 to 150,000 in 1998. Currently, there are 87,000 waiting. Furthermore, there are 320,000 people driving with provisional licences.
The Comptroller and Auditor General recommended that driver testers should be rotated between centres to improve efficiency and that tests should be more expensive.
Both IMPACT and the AA complained about the Department of the Environment's failure to regulate driver instructors, who currently have to meet no national standards.
