Some 72,000 learner drivers are languishing on waiting lists, of whom 10,000 have come on to the waiting lists in the last three months alone. I do not think we can blame anybody but the Government for that one. The Minister said the maximum ten-week waiting time is not a statutory target; maybe it should be. There is a possibility that the Opposition will bring forward a Bill to rectify that. If so, I hope the Minister will support it. The Minister talked about solutions. This is not rocket science. It is fairly easy to identify what the problem is and what the solution is. We do not have enough driving instructors. We have a lot of temporary instructors, but there are many areas in which we know there are gaps and we do not have enough driving instructors. What is the solution? We hire more driving instructors. We do not have enough test centres. Some of them are also temporary. In some areas we do not have any test centres. We have identified the obvious solution, which is to get the RSA and OPW to identify the gaps and make sure that every city and county has enough test centres. It is not rocket science. The problem is the fact that it is beyond the comprehension or ability of the Government to resolve it.

Sentiment score: 0.11

It is, because there are many people who do not have the tests within the target timeframes they should. The Minister may get a chance to respond again later. I want to refer to one example of a young man from Waterford who contacted me. He is not interested in glib responses from the Minister. He is interested in the Minister coming up with solutions and actually dealing with the problem. He needs his licence for work. He finished his lessons and was signed off at the start of September. He was originally told he would be invited for a test by 10 January. He was then told it would be 17 March at the earliest and possibly later than that. After that, he would have to wait another three or four weeks to get the test. That is the reality, unfortunately, and unless we have more driving instructors and permanent test centres, many more people will have to wait longer for the test. That is unfair on them. It is something that can be fixed.

Sentiment score: -0.05