New driving testers should see waiting lists come down 'very quickly', says Cork instructor 

As the first tranche of newly qualified driving testers began working at the end of last month, a Cork driving instructor says that waiting lists should go down quickly, but it’s keeping them down that will be the issue.

Speaking to The Echo, Jerry Dwyer from Dwyers Driving School in the city, said that the waiting lists have gotten incredibly long: “I know people waiting six, seven, even eight months.

“Some people finished their lessons last August and they’re still waiting on tests. There’s single people with kids waiting.”

He added that with the new testers in place “you’ll see the waiting lists come down very fast — last time they hired more testers it went down very quickly.

“But the problem is why couldn’t they foresee this happening? At this rate, I’ve been eight years watching the list go up to six to eight months, and when it gets really bad they hire more people — why aren’t they constantly rehiring?”

He explained that up until now: “They add you to a panel and call you when they get busy, so there’s no security of contract, but this time the new testers are to be on permanent contracts, so hopefully that means they will keep them.

“But people also leave due to retirement or not liking the job, so they need to keep rehiring, like in any other industry.” Latest figures from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) show that, as of the end of March, a total of 11,541 people were on the list for a driving test in the Wilton centre — the second highest in Ireland.

That included 296 people whose tests had been scheduled, 3,161 whose applications were considered paused, 1,849 who were not yet eligible, and 6,235 who were awaiting an invitation to book their driving test at the centre.