Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 January 2026
63. Deputy Keira Keogh asked the Minister for Transport the current wait time for a driving test in the test centre in Ballina, County Mayo; the measures being taken to reduce the wait time at this location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5085/26]
Amharc ar fhreagra64. Deputy Keira Keogh asked the Minister for Transport the current wait time for a driving test in the test centre in Castlebar, County Mayo; the measures being taken to reduce the wait time at this location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5086/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 64 together.
Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. This includes all application and scheduling matters. As such, the information requested by the Deputy is held by the Authority. Therefore, I have referred the Deputy's questions to the RSA for direct reply, and I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days.
Pending this more detailed response, the latest figures available on the CSO indicate that the average wait time across Co Mayo at the end of December 2025 was approximately 8.5 weeks. This is in line with the latest figures provided to me by the RSA which indicate an approximate wait time of 8 weeks in Ballina and 9 weeks in Castlebar.
Since taking office, reducing driver test waiting times has been a key priority for me. To that end in May 2025, I directed the RSA to produce and publish a service recovery plan to meet the 10-week average national waiting time target by September 2025, which the RSA achieved. The latest information available to me from the RSA indicates that the average national waiting time for a driving test was 10.6 weeks at the end of December. This marks a significant improvement on the 27-week average wait time in April 2025.
In addition the RSA indicates that there were 30 centres operating at or below the agreed Service Level Agreement target of 10 weeks, in addition to a further 11 centres recording average wait times of 11 or 12 weeks. It is important that the RSA continues to focus on reducing waiting times in the 26 centres which remain above target.
In September 2024, my department sanctioned an additional 70 permanent driver testing posts, bringing the number of full time tester positions to 200, representing a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022. At the end of December 2025, 196 testers were in place, which marks a significant increase on the 151 available at the beginning of 2025. The RSA is working to reach its full complement of 200 testers, and I am informed that it is planning to have 200 testers in place by February this year subject to a successful recruitment campaign.
In addition, the RSA has indicated that overtime and bank holiday testing will continue in 2026, and this will allow the RSA to mitigate the impact of shorter days and inclement weather on testing during winter months. I would also highlight that, to manage demand effectively at national level, testers, although formally assigned to specific centres, are routinely deployed to other locations as required.
Finally, the driver testing booking system now makes available cancelled test slots for candidates to take up at short notice. I would encourage leaner drivers awaiting a test to monitor this channel, which may provide an opportunity to book an earlier testing date.
