Delays for people seeking to take their driving tests are to continue until the middle of next year, the Oireachtas Committee on Transport is to hear on Wednesday.
In his opening statement, Road Safety Authority chief operations officer Brendan Walsh says he is aware that people want to know when the authority will be in a position to meet the agreed target of 10 weeks for a driving test.
“I want to be clear on that. Based on our permanent and temporary staff, the driver testing service level agreement is expected to be achieved in mid-2024,” Mr Walsh says in the statement.
The number of learner drivers who are available, eligible and waiting for an invitation to book their driving test stands at 71,554, up 61 per cent since last October.
“At the moment, the national average time to invite for a test is 30 weeks which is unsatisfactory. Over the past 20 months we have seen applications for driving tests at unprecedented levels,” Mr Walsh says.
The committee will also be discussing the National Car Test (NCT), with Mr Walsh set to tell members that target waits for appointments in the system will not be met until the end of the year.
“I am acutely aware that a commitment was given to this committee, the Minister and the public that the service would be returned to normal operating levels by June 2023,” he says in the statement.
“Regrettably this was not achieved due to a prolonged overseas recruitment process, given the interdependencies of multiple government departments and necessary due process. It is our expectation that the NCTs will be back to normal operational levels by the end of 2023.”
The authority exercises a supervisory and oversight role for the NCT, with responsibility for the delivery of the service sitting with contractor Applus.
Representatives for Applus will tell the committee that they are trying to source qualified mechanics in Ireland and across Europe but with limited success. Recruiters are understood to have had some success sourcing qualified mechanics in the Philippines.
The company initially secured an allowance from the Department of Enterprise to bring in 100 roadworthiness inspectors from outside the EU and recently secured an increase to 200. The average lead time for an appointment for a test is currently 18.6 days, against a national target of 12 days.
The committee will hear that during the first eight months of the year, the NCT service experienced its highest throughput in the 23-year history of the service with almost 200,000 more inspections carried out compared with the same period last year.
Applus is to tell the committee that about 88,000 vehicles have failed to show up for their appointments so far this year, and some 42,000 more cancelled immediately before their appointment. According to Applus, these numbers are running at almost double what they were before the Covid-19 pandemic.
