Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 May 2026
377. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Transport to provide further testing staff to the drivers licence test centre in Killarney given the wait time is over four months currently (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34632/26]
Amharc ar fhreagra378. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Transport to provide a detailed waiting time for driver licence tests in Kerry, by area, as in Killarney, Tralee, Castleisland and so on, for each of the years 2023 to 2025 and to date in 2026, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34633/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 377 and 378 together.
Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. Therefore, the information requested by the Deputy is held by the Authority. Given the RSA's responsibility in this matter, I have referred the Deputy's questions to the RSA for direct response. Please contact my office if a reply is not received within ten days.
Pending this response, the latest information to provided to me by the RSA indicates that as of 30 April, the average waiting time for a driving test in Kerry was 15-weeks at each of the test centres, Tralee and Killarney. While this is an improvement on the average wait time at the end of April 2025 it is still above the Service Level Agreement target of an average wait time of 10 weeks.
Regarding driver testers, I am informed by the RSA that as of 30 April, 191 testers were operational, a significant increase since the start of 2025 when the number of testers was 151. The RSA is working to reach its full complement of 200 testers, subject to the training and onboarding of new recruits. In addition the RSA has indicated that in order to manage demand effectively at national level, driver testers although formally assigned to specific centres can be and are deployed to other locations as required. This is an operational matter for the RSA.
The Deputy may wish to note that detailed statistics on the National Driver Testing Service, including driving tester distribution and driving test waiting times, are made available on the CSO website on a monthly basis and can be accessed via the following link: https://data.cso.ie/product/rsadts.
