Fermoy will need to be included in the additional 20 pop up driving test centres. That’s according to TD Seán Sherlock following figures provided to him by the RSA this week.
A parliamentary question submitted by the Deputy sought for the Minister of Transport to share the number of persons awaiting a driver test appointment in each centre, as well as the length of time people have been waiting for such tests.
A response issued to the deputy by the Director of Driver Testing and Licensing, Declan Naughton, states that wait times on such tests could not be provided.
“As we are only testing essential workers at present it is not possible to set out wait times by test centre. However, at a national level a person applying today would be likely to wait an average of 25 weeks for a driving test,” he said.
Figures released revealed that in Mallow, a total of 2,020 individuals are currently awaiting.
Deputy Sherlock went on to highlight that across Cork, there is currently a waiting list of almost 10,000 people. In Clonmel, 1,441 people are awaiting tests, while Tipperary Town currently has 651 people waiting on tests.
The Dungarvan test centre in County Waterford has a total of 1,011 people waiting on tests and overall, a total of 101,352 people across the country continue to wait on driver tests.
“The Minister has indicated to me in previous responses that there will be an additional 20 pop up centres to deal with the backlog. Fermoy must be on that list, given that the Mallow test centre has in excess of 2,000 awaiting a test,” Deputy Sherlock said.
‘JUST RIDICULOUS. IT’S CRAZY’
Deputy Sherlock also highlighted the issues with the theory test and the situation that is seeing applicants from North Cork offered appointments in other parts of the country.
“One individual from North Cork was offered Waterford for a test appointment and then Athlone. It’s just ridiculous. It’s crazy. 60% of the working population have just moved their working lives online. We already had evidence – we’ve seen the evidence of education, moving online. University College Cork and CIT are doing the same thing. All lectures are being delivered, online testing has been delivered, online assessments have been done online.
“If it can be done in an educational sphere, it should be able to be done in a driver theory testing sphere as well. And that’s why we’ve been pushing back on the RSA, the Road Safety Authority and on the Minister to start moving on this and start dealing with this as a matter of urgency because it has a massive impact on people – it’s about people’s lives,” the Deputy concluded.
