The livelihoods and futures of young people in Cavan are being jeopardised as a result of this Government’s ongoing inability to get to grips with the ever-lengthening driving waiting times.
That’s according to Aontú Senator Sarah O’Reilly who recounted the story of a young driver who is “desperate to be called for a test as he simply cannot continue trying to manage a 30 KM round trip each day trying to get to work and college .He is literally at his wits end and the stress and the strain of this is not fair” .
Senator O’Reilly says
“Learner drivers like him just can’t find a way to get around in rural Ireland, it’s not like they can hop on a Dart or jump on a regular bus. They are stranded– literally. For those dependent on personal transport to get to college and work, the delays are more than just an inconvenience—they’re completely disruptive. This young man from my constituency applied for his test in early January of this year and is still stuck on an indefinite waiting list some 18 weeks later”.
“He has been exhausting every possible favour from friends and family just to comply with the law, according to him he has everyone around him ‘tortured to accompany him in his car and dig him out’ but it simply cannot go on. He contacted me in a very distressed state, and he is worried about being able to sustain his job which in turn helps sustain him in college so it’s a vicious circle for him. He pleaded for my help, and I put in a PQ to get information regarding waiting times of each test centre in Ireland to see if there was any Centre near to Cavan with a lower wait time. I called the NDLS and I got the usual automated phone system telling me to press 1 for this press 2 for that. I found it extremely difficult to get through to an actual human which I found very frustrating”
No test centre in the country meets the statutory maximum wait time of 10 weeks, as stipulated in the service level agreement. While rural drivers face fines and penalties, there are no repercussions for those responsible for the lengthy delays. The RSA must answer for the measures they are implementing to reduce the backlog and provide a clear timeline for deploying additional testers.
The crux of the problem is the lack of permanent driving instructors to meet the rising demand. This is a glaring example of the government’s abject failure to allocate resources where they’re desperately needed—a pattern seen across sectors from healthcare to housing to education, it seems they can’t get a handle on anything.
There’s now an urgent need for the establishment of another test centre in Cavan to ease the burden on the current system.
