Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny urged the Taoiseach to ask the unions for an immediate derogation relating to Sustaining Progress to speed up driver-testing.

"I am quite sure that everyone involved in the trade union movement is anxious to ensure that human lives are saved on our roads. This matter cannot be dealt with at present because the proposed changes to the system are prohibited under Sustaining Progress."

He said that Gay Byrne, the new chairman of the Road Safety Authority, had rightly identified as an immediate priority the scandal of 400,000 people driving with provisional licences, which meant that one-in-five drivers had not successfully completed a driving test. "It is scandalous that 130,500 people are now waiting on average 32 weeks to take a driving test," he added.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that despite bonus payments, additional recruitments and redeployment of existing civil servants, the backlog could not be cleared quickly enough. He saw no alternative, he said, to contracting for extra resources on a temporary basis.

He said the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen did not intend replacing the existing staff by assigning their work to other people. "There have been discussions between the Minister and the driver-testing unions. The unions have been engaging with the Minister over the last week. The Minister has told me he hopes a satisfactory outcome will be reached."

Mr Kenny said the Bacon and Goodbody reports of 2001 measured the cost of the loss of one life on the roads as €2.8 million, when matters such as education, allowances and training were taken into account.

"The country will lose 35 years of productivity if a person . . . dies in a road accident at the age of 30."