An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10 ============================================================ Mike Kennelly (FG), Labour Panel I welcome our distinguished guest, the Portuguese ambassador, to the House this morning. I also welcome Councillor Peter Feeney and his special guests and all of the guests in the Public Gallery this morning. Today I want to raise the issue of limited access to driving test centres in north Kerry and seek a debate with the Minister for Transport on the provision of additional driving test capacity in rural north Kerry and throughout the country. At present residents of north Kerry must travel to Tralee or Killarney to sit their driving test. This includes people living in towns and villages such as Listowel, Ballybunion, Tarbert, Moyvane, Duagh, Causeway, Abbeydorney, Ballyheigue, Ballydonoghue, Lixnaw and Kilflynn in rural north Kerry. When young people are completing their essential driving training families already face the cost of lessons, insurance and testing fees. Long travel distances for lessons and test appointments place an additional burden on households, particularly in rural areas where public transport is limited and a driving licence is often essential for accessing education, employment and training opportunities. There is also a strong case that demand exists. Figures from last year show that more than 850 people were actively waiting for a driving test in Tralee. There were 3,736 driving tests in total. There were 500 waiting in Killarney, where there were 3,933 driving tests completed in total. When scheduled applicants and those progressing through the system are included, there were more than 4,300 applications across the two Kerry centres. In general the long delays for driving tests in Kerry over the past three years were caused by a combination of very high demand and insufficient testing capacity. The Listowel municipal district area alone has a population approaching 32,000 and this does not cover the whole district of north Kerry. Listowel serves as the main hub for the area. The town has a suitable road network including urban routes, roundabouts, residential areas, national and regional roads, and the recently opened Listowel bypass further enhances connectivity and provides access to a wider range of road conditions suitable for driver testing capability. There is a very strong argument for the RSA, in a time of real need for road safety, to examine the feasibility of establishing a driving test centre in Listowel or, at the very least, to assess the demand and services needed for the wider north Kerry region. I call on the Minister for Transport to come to the House to debate this issue for north Kerry. I was across the road this morning at the INTO's presentation for Oireachtas Members on its pre-budget submission, with regard to the 1,000 teaching jobs needed to secure the national schools in this country. I want to show my support for its submission. --- 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/seanad/2026-06-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-10