Richard Boyd Barrett: Condemns 39-Week Driving Test Backlog

Thanks to Sinn Féin and Deputy Daly for bringing this motion forward, which we're happy to support. I heard somebody say Tala was the worst in terms of the waiting list. It was reported in the middle of last year that Dun Laoghaire was the worst, so we're competing for that accolade. But certainly waiting times in Dun Laoghaire for tests and for resits are shockingly bad. I just thought I'd give the Minister a flavour and they haven't improved. I just took the trouble to look through emails I got over the last couple of years and what's evident from them is that nothing has improved for quite some time. One constituent wrote to me, and this is an interesting overlap of other failures by the Government and indeed by a Minister who has moved from Housing now to Transport. In November 23, a constituent wrote, My housemates and I have recently received a no-fault eviction notice. I've had no luck finding alternative arrangements in Dublin. So come December 31, at the age of 29, I'll have to move in with my grandmother in Tipperary and commute to work. I'll need to commute to work daily and for that I'll need, from Tipperary to Dun Laoghaire, my full driver's licence rather than a provisional. However, the wait times are apparent. I'm currently on the waiting list and it is estimated that I only received my invitation to book a slot for the test in September of next year. So from November to December. Quite, quite incredible. But nothing has changed. Another constituent writes to me, in February this year, I originally applied for my driving test in June 2024, with the expectation based on official guidance that I would be able to sit the test within 10 weeks. However, my waiting time has continuously been pushed back. First, I was informed I would receive an invitation to book my test in October, which then got delayed to January. Now I've been told I must wait until April the 28th, just to select a date which likely will be scheduled for late May or early June. If all goes well, it will have been an entire year since I registered, far from the promised 10-week turnaround outlined by the Minister for Transport. Another constituent who wrote to me on the 22nd of February, who puts it very well and very succinctly, I am currently on a waiting list of 39 plus weeks for my first time driving test. That is nine months, a full human gestation period. Pretty well put. And the answer, of course, is very basic. To recruit enough people to actually do the testing. And you have to wonder, you know, given the fact that the government have been misleading the public about their recruitment strategy in the health service, telling the public, telling this house repeatedly, Oh no, we are really trying to recruit people, we just find it difficult to recruit them. And then you discover when you talk to health workers, they are not trying to recruit them at all, because there is a thing called paying numbers, which means they are telling different sections of the health service, you are actually not allowed to recruit people when you need them. So you have to wonder, is it just the same here, and something basic as testing people to drive so they can get their licence, when often their jobs or critical parts of their life, their, you know, their existence depend on it. It is pretty pathetic and the government should implement this motion. It is a motion.