Ireland’s driver test backlog has been an issue since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in 2020.
In line with earlier strict measures to cope with the pandemic, driving tests and theory tests were put on hold for weeks at a time.
Driving lessons were also affected by the restrictions throughout 2020 and 2021, and the result of this is that thousands of drivers have been waiting months to book their tests.
As the country reopened towards the end of 2021, the RSA and Department of Transport were working incredibly hard to hire more staff to work through the backlog.
Speaking back in November, the Department of Transport told the Irish Mirror: “In order to deal with the backlog, the RSA received sanction to hire 40 new temporary testers, in addition to 36 they were sanctioned to retain or rehire in 2020.
“These new testers have completed their training and are now conducting live tests since July 2021. Sanction has also been granted to recruit a further 40 testers.
“An extra 10 temporary test centres have been opened and a further 9 locations have been expanded within the existing premises, to accommodate more testers.”
Now just one week in 2022, the wait time in most centres is still in excess of ten weeks, however, this is already a stark decrease on wait times experienced in 2021.
A spokesperson for the RSA told the Irish Mirror: “At 52 of our 59 driving test centres the current waiting time for an invitation to select a car test appointment is ten weeks or less.”
Drivers are reminded that they will receive an email when they are invited to book their test, and they should refrain from ringing the RSA for wait times.
