Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2024-02-01 ============================================================ Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire Waiting lists for driving tests are ridiculously long. In my area, which is the worst in the country, the waiting period is over 50 weeks. Nationally it is about 30 weeks. In many cases this means jobs are lost for people who have jobs that are dependent on having a driving licence. People may have relatives they need to care for, including elderly, vulnerable or disabled relatives, and they need a driving licence because public transport is not available to move people around. They cannot do this because they are waiting for a year. Fórsa states that despite commitments to address this problem the RSA is not recruiting full-time staff, and contract staff are not having their contracts renewed. It seems to be outsourcing to contract staff, many of whom are not even properly qualified. Will the Tánaiste address this as a matter of urgency? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-02-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:37+00:00 Sitting date: 2024-02-01