The months-long wait that many Irish drivers have had to endure over the last two years ahead of their tests looks likely to continue for quite some time.
During the height of the pandemic, both driving lessons and testing services were put on hold as it was deemed too dangerous for instructors and testers to be in close quarters with the public.
As a result, Ireland’s driver backlog reached astronomical heights, and although everything is being done to clear the waitlist, it will be quite some time before normal timing resumes.
Declan Naughton, Director of Driver Testing and Licensing with the RSA, told RTE: “At the start of the pandemic it was six weeks, during the worst of the pandemic it went to about six months and we’re now back to about 10 weeks.”
The RSA say that at this point - having hired more testers and with restrictions easing - 60 centres across the country have their wait times down to the 10-week mark.
However, there are centres that still have a backlog between 14 and 18 weeks in length - and this is not for the physical test, this is how long it is taking to be invited to book your slot, which could be weeks later.
The five centres with the longest wait times this month are:
- Drogheda - 18 weeks
- Mulhuddart - 16 weeks
- Mulhuddart Carlton Hotel - 14 weeks
- Killester - 14 weeks
- Galway - 14 weeks
As Ireland continues to revert to pre-pandemic life over the coming weeks and months, the RSA says it will be in a position to provide extra capacity to the most under pressure test centres.
There are currently 104,398 learners waiting to take the driving test. However, of this number, 27,375 are ineligible because they have not finished the mandatory number of lessons.
Meanwhile, another 42,846 people were offered appointments but declined to take them and 21,413 are waiting for an invitation to select a date for their test.
In its most recent update, the RSA said: "Our target is to have an average wait of ten weeks waiting time and we achieved that during the last few weeks.
"Projections made early last year had estimated it would be February 2022 before we reached that point.”
