THE Road Safety Authority (RSA) say that driving test applicants will face an eight-month wait for an appointment
The RSA say that there are now 43,192 people waiting on an appointment and the figure is expected to significantly rise be2fore Christmas.
Testing services were suspended in March – when the average wait time was only six weeks.
A total of 15,111 people are scheduled to take a test over the next five weeks, but those people are not included in the 43,192 figure.
The RSA has introduced a number of measures:
* Increasing the number of tests, a driver tester can perform each day, from five to six from September 14th.
* Scheduling additional overtime tests, including testing on Saturdays to increase capacity.
* Re-hiring up to 19 driver testers who were previously employed on temporary contracts. This could bring the number of testers up from 118 to more than 130 testers
* The authority is examining the recruitment and training of new driver testers.
Tags: