Driving test waiting times are increasing once again, having just hit the 10-week target in September after years of continuously rising.
The average waiting time has been creeping up in the past three months and now stands at 12.22 weeks, up from 11.44 at the end of November and 9.57 in September.
The longest wait, at 22 weeks, is in Mulhuddart, west Dublin. This means that a learner in that area will have to wait 5½ months from the date they apply for a test until they are invited to book a test appointment. That takes a further three to five weeks.
A total of 35 of 57 car driving test centres across the State have longer waiting times than the 10-week standard.
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The shortest waiting time is seven weeks, in Mitchelstown, Co Cork.
Loughrea and Tuam, in the Galway East constituency of Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney, have the second shortest waiting time, eight weeks, along with Naas, Co Kildare and Tipperary town.
Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin has the second-longest waiting time, at 21 weeks, followed by Raheny at 20 weeks. Finglas is the only one of seven test centres in the capital to be at or ahead of the target time, with a nine-week average wait.
The figures were compiled by road safety campaign group Parc, based on Road Safety Authority (RSA) data.
Fine Gael Dublin West TD Emer Currie, who raised the issue via parliamentary questions, said that, while the official waiting time in Mulhuddart is 22 weeks, “I have constituents now waiting 36 weeks. That’s a full 26 weeks longer than the 10-week wait the RSA committed to earlier this year.”
She added: “Reaching the 10-week target is one thing. The RSA must now show it can sustain it.”
Waiting time increases have been matched by a rise in the number of “no-shows” – learner drivers who fail to turn up for their test and fail to cancel on time to allow another applicant take their slot.
In the year to October, 7,701 learner drivers failed to attend their appointment. This included 1,000 in September and 1,089 in October, the highest of any month in 2025.
In May, when some candidates had to wait more than a year for a test, the Minister for Transport, Darragh O’Brien, instructed the RSA to reduce waiting times to a national average of 10 weeks by September 1st and, after intensive effort, the authority got it down to 9.57 weeks.
Chair of Parc Susan Gray expressed her frustration that the RSA hit the target “but now the pressure is off, they’ve let it slip again”, she said.
The Department of Transport approved 70 more driver testers in September 2024 because the authority “said they could not get the waiting times down as they didn’t have enough driver testers”, she added.
“The RSA pledged they would have 200 testers all fully trained and employed by September 2025. They failed.” At the end of October, the RSA said it envisages having 198 permanent driver testers by year end, and it still won’t meet the 200 target, she said. “‘Envisage’ is not a good word and it’s no wonder the waiting times are climbing.”
The RSA said it initiated a big recruitment campaign but during this period “the service also experienced a number of resignations and retirements”. It currently has 190 permanent testers. A further six new testers “will begin conducting driving tests from December 15th”. Training of other new testers “is also scheduled for the new year”.
The authority added that the percentage of no-shows in November was 3.7 per cent, in line with the average of 3.5 per cent for the year to date.
