€10m testing fund included in estimates

More than €10 million to fund a series of measures aimed at significantly reducing the waiting time for a driving test will be provided in the budget estimates tomorrow.

The money will pay for a new overtime scheme for testing at weekends and in the evenings in 2007 and provide for a second contract for the private sector to carry out tests, subject to union consultation.

Hiring up to 20 additional driver testers on fixed-term contracts and seconding driver testers from Britain and Northern Ireland are among the other new measures likely to be considered by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

The aim is to reduce an average 28 weeks waiting time to no more than 8 weeks. In some areas, provisional drivers still must wait for over a year for a test.

Currently drivers in Navan must wait 62 weeks, the longest waiting time in the State.

Last night the chief executive of the RSA Noel Brett said: "I haven't been notified yet of anything to do with the estimates, but if there is a significant amount of money, as is being reported, obviously we would be delighted.

"If we get that money we would immediately sit down with our staff and trade unions in the context of the current agreement to address the backlog, and to explore options that have not be explored previously," he said.

More than 134,000 of the 440,000 drivers on a provisional licence are awaiting a test.

Unions strongly opposed the outsourcing of driving tests to a private company when it was first proposed.

Asked last night whether they would adopt a similar stance, a spokesman for Impact said nothing was ruled in or out at this stage. He said its members were prepared to engage with the RSA and the Department of Transport on ways to reduce the backlog.

Ninety-one of the 131 Department of Transport driver testers have been working evenings and weekends to conduct an extra 50,000 tests by February 2007. More than 33,000 of these tests have already been delivered and the cost of this bonus scheme is roughly €2.5 million.

This year the Department set a target of 170,000 tests, including the bonus scheme. However, applications are running at 4,000 a week, or almost 200,000 a year. Attempts to cut the waiting list are also hampered by the 50 per cent failure rate.

SGS Ireland won the tender to provide 40,000 driving tests and started work at four centres at the end of October. It has already completed 4,000 tests.

Testing at seven more SGS centres will start on December 4th, and the contract, which includes provision for an additional 5,000 tests, will be completed by summer 2007.