Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 January 2026
291. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Transport whether driving testers within the RSA have been reassigned from commercial driving tests to private car driving tests in order to reduce overall waiting-time averages; if so, when this practice commenced; and the impact it has had on waiting times for commercial licence applicants. [5239/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. This includes deployment of driver testers. As such, the information requested relating to distribution of driver testers is held by the Authority. 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 detailed response, I understand from my engagements with the RSA that there was an unavoidable reduction in the number of commercial driving and professional competency tests conducted in June and July of last year as a substantial number of new driver testers were in the process of being trained. In anticipation of this reduction, a concerted effort was made to test additional commercial vehicles last May and significant numbers of tests were conducted from August to the end of the year as additional testing capacity entered the system.
With the sanction for permanent driving testing positions 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 vehicles, 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 2025.
