'People's live are on hold': Six month wait for driving tests in Cork

Learner drivers waiting to undertake a test to get their full licence will have to wait for up to six months to do their practical exam in any of the four driving test centres in Cork.

Almost 17,500 applications have been received for driving test dates in the four Cork driving test centres as of December 31 according to figures provided by the Road Safety Authority to newly elected Cork South Central Fianna Fáil TD, Seamus McGrath.

“The waiting times for driving tests are unacceptably long,” said Mr McGrath, who pointed out that he had been contacted by a constituent who had recently failed a test and had been assigned a retest date in August.

“This has been the case for a considerable period now and it must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

“People’s lives are on hold while they are waiting on a test, whether it be a first test or a retest,” he said, pledging to pursue the matter.

Of the total of 17,500 applications, just 1,302 have had a test booking assigned to them while approximately 3300 of these applications have been deemed ineligible, which means that they hadn’t been driving on a provisional licence for more than six months or hadn’t carried out essential driver training.

APPLICATIONS

According to the figures provided to Mr McGrath, the driving test centre in Wilton is the most popular, having received 10,386 applications as of December 31 last year. Almost 1800 of these were deemed ineligible.

A further 3,400 applications were paused – they had been invited to book their test but hadn’t done so within ten days. More than 4500 were waiting to be assigned a day and time while 770 tests had been scheduled. The earliest test availability in Wilton is the week beginning August 4 this year.

In the Ballincollig test centre, 1,696 have applied but 642 were deemed ineligible. 

The applications of 590 are deemed to be paused and 390 waiting for a time with just 74 tests scheduled. In Mallow, there were 3,616 applications as of December 31 with 604 considered ineligible, 1140 paused and 1637 are waiting for test bookings while 235 have been scheduled. The earliest test date being given according to the estimation of the Road Safety Authority website is also August 4. 

The earliest test date in Skibbereen is the week beginning June 30 and the volume of applications there as of New Year’s Eve was 1779 and 283 of these were deemed ineligible with 518 paused and 855 waiting for their slot. A total of 123 tests were scheduled.

In a response to a written Dáil question from Mr McGrath, the Minister for Transport has said in September 2024 his Department sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for driver testers. “This increases the total permanent sanction for testers to 200, which represents a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022,” said the Minister.

“As a condition of sanction, my officials have requested that a plan is put in place to restore waiting times to 10 weeks as soon as possible,” said the Minister.

“I understand that recruitment is well underway and additional capacity will enter the service in the coming months, helping to progressively reduce waiting times.”