The Road Safety Authority (RSA) should be penalised financially if it cannot meet targets for driving test wait times, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has said.
She criticised the lack of accountability within the RSA and said there should be a system similar to that in operation for NCTs, where the test is provided for free if it slips beyond an agreed timeframe.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Ms Whitmore further criticised the long waiting times for driving tests in Ireland, with the average wait being 27 weeks. Some testing centres have waiting times as long as 43 weeks.
“The unacceptably high waiting list for driving tests has been an issue for many years now, and really what I feel is that there is just really no accountability within the RSA for them to actually meet their 10-week target,” she said.
Mexican beauty influencer Valeria Márquez shot dead while livestreaming on TikTok
PGA Championship Round 1 live updates: McIlroy (74) struggles with a misfiring game on a tough day for Irish contingent
Dublin landlord hit with largest-ever RTB fine over failure to register tenancies
Look inside: Former RTÉ presenter’s Glenageary home with French countryside-style garden for €2.25m
“We currently have 83,000 people who are waiting 27 weeks on average. Some testing centres it’s actually as high as 43 weeks. And it’s hugely impacting so many people and I think particularly young people who might need their driving test to get a new job – or indeed those that need to travel to college because they can’t get accommodation and need to live at home.
“So this really impacts on so many people’s lives and it has done for a number of years now. We’ve heard promise after promise from the Government that they were going to get on top of this and we really haven’t seen any moves. In fact since we last discussed in the Dáil in February we’ve seen an increase of a thousand people on the waiting list.
She said adding more testers would likely bring numbers down, but added: “There needs to be some level of financial accountability for the RSA to encourage them to actually meet their 10-week target. With the NCT test if you don’t get your test within 28 days under their service level agreement with the Government that test should be provided for free, and I believe that actually it should be the same for the driving test that if the RSA do not meet their 10-week target that actually that driving test should provide it for free.
“And I think if you saw that level of a financial incentive or financial accountability I think then we would really see movement.”
Ms Whitmore said measures such as opening driving test centres at weekends, along with overtime and the need to make sure that the contracts the testers are working under are sufficient and will encourage people into that industry.
A suggestion by Co Clare Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe that learner drivers should be allowed to drive unaccompanied, was “really dangerous”, she said.
[ Driving test ‘amnesty’ ruled out for experienced learnersOpens in new window ]
“The actual safety issues with that are incredible and when you look at the fatalities amongst unaccompanied learner drivers they’re very, very high and I think really those kind of suggestions should not be considered.”
Earlier on Newstalk Breakfast Mr Crowe had called for some leeway under which learner drivers could drive without a full licence holder. In parts of rural Ireland “where there is no Luas, there’s no Dart, there is no significant transport network”, people needed a car to get around. There should be a mechanism whereby their driving was monitored and they could not exceed a certain speed, he said.
“Some insurance companies have a speed restrictor in the car or a way of monitoring driver behaviour. Maybe that would be the smart way rather than criminalising all of these young people who cannot get someone to travel with them.”
