The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is “steadfast in its dedication” to lower the average waiting time for a driving test to 10 weeks by September, its chief executive told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport this morning.
Sam Waide recognised the “ongoing frustration” felt by the public on this issue and said it “is not a situation that any of us consider acceptable”.
Last week, the average waiting time to secure a test was 19.7 weeks, a slight drop from a May figure of 20.6 weeks, itself a notable decrease from 27 weeks in April this year.
Recognising this goal as “ambitious”, he and fellow RSA representatives said they were “very confident” it would be achieved due to the “largest ever recruitment exercise in the history of the RSA” since its foundation in 2006.
[ About 600 learners fail to show for driving tests each month – RSAOpens in new window ]
With a recruitment drive that aims to have 200 trained testers working full-time by September, an increase from the current figure of 152, testers have also been working extended hours and across different testing centres.
RSA chief operations officer Brendan Walsh said testers are now working evenings and weekends, including bank holidays. He said 700 driving tests took place on the Monday of the June bank holiday weekend.
They “are working under significant pressure”, however, the goal to increase supply is “not just a target but a national imperative for the RSA”, Mr Waide said.
The organisation conducted 157,183 driving tests in 2021, which rose to 253,850 in 2024. Mr Waide cited growing population, delayed demand from the pandemic , and lack of rural public transport as causes for this 61 per cent increase.
The RSA will soon be in a position to accommodate up to 360,000 tests a year, Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy said, when accounting for each tester conducting up to eight tests a day.
Mr Murphy said “we should be able to bring the waiting list significantly lower” than 10 weeks under these circumstances. However, Mr Walsh said “I don’t think it would be right from a driver education perspective [ ...] for someone to get a test in a week”.
Fellow Fine Gael TD Emer Currie said people continuously not attending their driving test appointments is an “extremely serious issue” which affects the availability of tests for others.
[ Driving test logjam: how to beat the long waiting timesOpens in new window ]
Mr Walshe said 56,000 people are “on three or more [learner’s] permits” after failing to show up for their test, with “a handful” of drivers on more than 10. Three hundred and seventy thousand people have a learner’s permit in Ireland currently.
The RSA also holds responsibility for the National Care Testing (NCT) service. The average national waiting time for an NCT assessment was 14 days last week, however the RSA expects to lower this to 12 days by the end of this month.
There are currently 50 NCT testing centres across the State, with “expansion to additional locations actively under way”.
