Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 January 2026
297. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Transport whether consideration has been given to establishing a dedicated commercial driving test stream within the Road Safety Authority to ensure professional drivers are not disadvantaged by overall demand for private car tests; and if not, the reason. [5245/26]
View answerUnder the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. Neither I nor my officials are involved in the service at an operational level. Given the RSA's responsibility in this matter, I have referred the Deputy's question to the RSA for direct response. Please contact my office if a reply is not received within ten days.
However it should be noted that the sanction for permanent driving testing positions is now increased to 200. This increased capacity will be embedded in the system going forward and help to ensure that the RSA is capable of conducting a greater volume of tests for all categories of vehicles, including commercial tests, each year. This increased capacity was reflected in the average national wait time for a truck or bus driving test, with figures provided by the RSA showing that this fell from 16 weeks at the end of last July to 10.6 weeks at the end of December.
