Test delays - Kilkenny drivers on the go slow

Sinn Fein TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, Kathleen Funchion, has criticised the Department of Transport’s ‘workforce planning’, as a large volume of Kilkenny people are forced to wait over six months to take their driving test.

According to a spokesperson from the Department of Transport, just over 1,000 candidates in Kilkenny are waiting to take their driving test, while 172 have scheduled their test.

The local waiting times resemble the national picture, with delays of approximately 24 weeks across the country.

This "far exceeds the agreed acceptable waiting time for invitation to test of 10 weeks", a spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, the RSA recruited an additional 75 testers in an attempt to reduce the backlog by the end of this year and to ‘agreed service levels’ by mid-2024.

The RSA is currently providing an average of 4,200 tests per week, up from 3,000 in October 2022, but local Sinn-Fein TD, Kathleen Funchion believes more needs to be done;

“While I accept some of the backlog can be attributed to delays in testing due to pandemic restrictions, there was also a failure by the Department of Transport in terms of their workforce planning. 

"They would have been aware that there was going to be an increase in learner drivers becoming eligible to take their full licence test in early 2022, but failed to plan for an increase in their workforce. 

“Failing to plan and prepare has been a consistent theme throughout this Government's term, and the driver testing system is just the latest hallmark of this", she concluded.