Waiting times for driving tests will not reduce to 10 weeks by February 2022 unless the number of additional testers is doubled, the Oireachtas Committee on Transport heard on Tuesday.
The committee also heard many essential workers who are exempt from the Covid-related ban on taking a driving test, cannot take the test anyway, because current restrictions make it impossible to complete the mandatory schedule of 12 lessons.
Transport Committee chairman Kieran O’Donnell said the ten weeks target was based on testing resuming in early April and the number of additional testers hired to help clear the backlog increased from 40 to 80.
Mr O’Donnell said the situation was particularly serious for those seeking a job where they needed a driving licence and for essential workers. He said the committee would write to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan seeking the Minister’s cooperation in sanctioning additional temporary testers.
Mr O’Donnell was speaking after Road Safety Authority chief executive Sam Wade told the committee that because of the extension of Level 5 restrictions by Government “until at least the 5th of April” driver testing could only be made available to essential workers.
But he said “typically, 25 percent of driving test slots [are] going unused”.
He said it was “not possible to provide waiting times for the driving test” because the service was “not operating as normal”.
“What we can say is that we have 98,414 applications on hand and of these 5,670 hold a test appointment in the coming weeks and 62,024 are waiting for a test. The remaining 30,720 are ineligible for a test. Those who are ineligible are generally customers who haven’t completed mandatory lessons”.
Additional
He said if the first tranche of 40 additional testers came available “at the end of June” in addition to the existing complement of 138 testers, “this will not be enough to get waiting times down to the service level commitment of an average of 10 weeks” by February 2022.
Mr Ward also told the committee the Driver Theory Test continues to be suspended, with more than 80,000 appointments in place over the coming months, “which are now being rescheduled because the suspension of the service is being extended”. He said when the theory test reopens plans were in place to increase the capacity from an average of 15,000 to 50,000 per calendar month. He said the increased capacity will be available from mid-April 2021
“ We shouldn’t underestimate impact that Covid-19 has had on the driving test and the challenges faced by RSA driver testers to deliver the driving test safely during this global health crisis” he said.
However Sinn Féin TD Darren O’Rourke told the committee essential workers cannot book a driving test without completing the 12 mandatory lessons. And could not take the mandatory lessons because of Covid. He called for “high-grade personal protection equipment “to allow driving tests for essential workers continue under Level 5”. He also called for the theory test to be put online.
Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley said the Road Safety Authority was “setting a very low ambition rate, I think you should aim for two weeks” waiting time for a test. He said the authority should hove a bank of part time staff which they could bring in at short notice during busy times.
