Learners waiting up to six months for driving test, figures show

Almost 83,000 people are waiting for driving tests, with waiting times of up to six months in some tests centres, new figures show.

More than half (45,000) of those on the waiting list have yet to be given a test appointment, according to information supplied to Senator Victor Boyhan by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), which operates the driving test.

The information also shows significant difference between pass and failure rates across the test centres.

In one week this month, 42 people failed the test at Gorey, Co Wexford, while just 20 people passed, a failure rate of almost 70 per cent. But in Donegal almost 80 per cent of applicants passed a test.

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Mr Boyhan has called on Minister for Transport Shane Ross to look for ways to improve the high failure rate, and why it varies so much from one test centre to another. “The high failure rate contributes significantly to the backlog,” he said.

The longest waiting time for car-driver testing was in Skibbereen, Co Cork, at 26 weeks, with 25 weeks each at test centres in Castlebar, Co Mayo; Cavan town; Gorey, Co Wexford; Killarney, Co Kerry; and Kilrush, Co Clare, according to the figures.

The RSA has previously said its target was to achieve an average waiting time of 10 weeks.

Recruitment

Mr Boyhan said the waiting time issue centred on a shortage of driving testers. He called on the Minister to immediately approve the recruitment of new staff.

The RSA employs 98 testers to deal with applications for a driving licence, according to the figures. Some 10 driving testers have retired since the start of the year and two more are due to leave by the end of the year.

Mr Boyhan said the delays had “reached crisis point” and called on Mr Ross to intervene.

The RSA said the current waiting time was just 11.8 weeks on average. Increased waiting times were seen “nationally over the past year” due to “a sustained level of applications being received, alongside a reduction in driver tester numbers due to retirements”.

‘Too long’

The authority said it recognised that waiting times were “too long across all of the service, and the RSA will continue to prioritise the longest waiting times until such time as they return to acceptable levels. We are seeing an improvement in the waiting times and plan to get back to a national average of 10 weeks (normal service level commitment) later in the year. Where possible the RSA will prioritise any urgent requests for a test and will also use cancellations that arise in the test schedule to facilitate urgent requests.”

The RSA also said it had issued offers of employment to to 40 people from a recent recruitment process “with approval from the Minister to meet expected demand on foot of the new Road Traffic Act 2018”. It is anticipated that all of this group will have completed training and be undertaking driving tests by the end of this year.