Fee increases on licences and NCTs adds to already 'expensive process' of learning to drive, says Cork instructor 

A Cork driving instructor has said that fee increases on licences and NCTs recently announced by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) will not help to solve the ongoing problems with the driving test system.

The prices are set to rise from January 1, as “part of business planning for the coming year, including planned €18m expenditure on public interest activities and Government priorities,” the RSA said.

These will be the first changes to the prices of services since 2012, and in some cases since 2011, they added.

The fee to get a driving licence will increase from €55 to €65, and the fee to get a learner permit will increase from €35 to €45.

An NCT will increase from €55 to €60, while a re-test of an NCT will see the sharpest increase, from €28 to €40.

Speaking to The Echo, Jerry Dwyer from Dwyers Driving School in the city said: “The increases themselves are marginal enough, but if you add them into the whole thing — doing 12 lessons, a theory test, a driving test, insurance — it is a very expensive process already without adding this in.”

Mr Dwyer added that the waiting lists for tests are currently very high, saying: “They got it down to 12 weeks’ wait and now it’s gone back up to four to five months again.”

Mr Dwyer said he believes additional testers need to be given permanent positions to try to alleviate the backlog.

“There’s 65,000 people leaving school every year, on top of people coming in from other countries and those who do their test older, so it’s [demand] totally consistent — I’ve just finished lessons with two doctors in Cork and now they have to wait for a test before they can drive to work.”

For people coming in from other countries, the current system leaves them at a disadvantage, he added.

“The biggest problem with the whole system is that it’s geared towards 17-year-old Mary and Johnny, who live at home with their parents and they can borrow their car.

“It’s not geared towards 80% of the people on my books — from different countries or just different counties in Ireland who don’t have access to a car to practise on.

“They go down that route of trying to do loads of lessons but that’s very expensive, and lessons are never a substitute for actual practise, so it’s harder to pass your test.”