Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 January 2026
293. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Transport whether any driving test centres have had periods during which no commercial driving tests were scheduled or conducted; the reasons for this; and the steps being taken to ensure available testing capacity for professional drivers is fully utilised. [5241/26]
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 all application and scheduling matters. As such, the information requested relating to waiting times by licence category 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 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 then 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.
