Driving test backlog reaches new high: Check the latest waiting time in your area

Tomas Doherty

Ireland’s driving test backlog has reached another high while waiting times continue to worsen, new figures show.

Data from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) reveal that more than 83,000 applicants were waiting for a driving test in April – the highest number recorded since the pandemic.

The backlog was 58,860 in April 2024 and reached 72,414 in January this year, before hitting a record 83,486 applicants last month.

Waiting times have also worsened significantly this year – the estimated wait for a driving test nationally in April was 27.3 weeks, or between 6-7 months, according to the RSA.

In April last year the wait time nationally was 14.9 weeks.

The RSA aims to give applicants a test within 10 to 12 weeks of applying, but the last time it was within target nationally was almost three years ago in July 2022.

The wait for learner drivers in April varied significantly depending on the test centre, though all locations had at least a five-month wait.

Navan and Tallaght had the longest wait times out of all the State’s driving test centres, with applicants waiting an estimated 43 weeks.

Galway’s Carnmore test centre was the location with the next longest wait, estimated at 42 weeks.

The centres in Clifden, Tralee and Gorey had the shortest queue time last month – but applicants still faced a 21-week wait for a driving test.

The new figures also reveal that waiting times have got significantly longer over the past year at all of the 60 test centres in the country.

Learner drivers applying for a test in Limerick’s Woodview centre had a nine-week wait in April last year. By this year that had rocketed to an estimated 31-week wait.

The picture is similar across the country, with several test centres recording their longest-ever wait times in April.

Driving tests have moved up the political agenda in recent months, with Minister of State Seán Canney saying that "all options" are under consideration to address the backlog.

"The service is not right and it needs to be rectified," he told the Dáil last week.

Mr Canney said he had instructed the RSA to review its plan to get test times down to 10 weeks and "identify further measures that will bring forward the date for achieving the target".

The newly appointed chairman of the Oireachtas transport committee, Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy, said he was seeking an early meeting with the RSA "to allow them to outline what they are doing to tackle growing waiting lists for driving tests".

The RSA has said a record number of tests took place last year, with 253,850 carried out, up from 196,853 in 2023.

The authority has also begun to recruit more testers in order to bring waiting lists down by the end of the year.