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THE GOVERNMENT HAS approved the recruitment of an additional 75 driver testers by the RSA.
This will bring the potential total number of testers to over 200 and is an attempt to address the current backlog in the Driver Testing Service.
The new hires will be in addition to the 30 extra testers who were previously sanctioned in July 2022 and have been fully deployed since the end of last month.
The testers will be recruited through open competition.
The Department of Transport has said that it is expected the new testers will be trained and ready to work from October of this year.
“With these new testers in place, customers will see improvements in their waiting times and the RSA expect the backlog of applicants to be returned to target customer service levels by the end of the first quarter of 2024,” the Department said in a statement today.
Demand for driving tests is now at unprecedented levels, the Department noted.
Applications in 2022 were 28% higher than 2021 levels and 27% up on 2018 pre-Covid pandemic levels.
The current demand for driving tests has a number of contributory factors, the Department said, including: an increase in application volumes, with more learners applying for and becoming eligible to take their driving test since the start of 2022, increased capacity and take up of the Driver Theory Test, and an increase in Advanced Driving Instructors’ and their capacity to deliver lessons to learner drivers.
“This approval for new testers for the RSA is a positive and proactive response to an ongoing problem within the Driver Testing Service across the state,” Minister of State with responsibility for road safety Jack Chambers said in a statement.
“By increasing the number of driver testers, the RSA can provide the testing service they are committed to delivering and a quality service each customer deserves,” Chambers said.
“The progress made in the driver testing service will be carefully monitored, and the RSA will work to provide as many tests as possible as safely as possible.”
Road collisions
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier today, Chambers said the rise in road deaths across Ireland so far this year is “of serious concern”.
“There have been too many lives lost again this year and it’s something that we’re absolutely prioritising,” he said.
Chambers said there has been engagement at the ministerial road safety committee regarding the issue.
“We are renewing our efforts nd just to reassure people of that, we’ve seen very, very concerning trends in 2022,” he said.
Chambers said there will be a review on speed limits presented to him in the coming weeks.
He said that over 200 people have been seriously injured so far this year.
Two teenagers were killed in a single-vehicle collision in Co Galway early yesterday morning. They have been named locally as Lukas Joyce from Annaghdown and Kirsty Bohan from Headford, both aged 14.
Two other teenagers were seriously injured in the crash.
“I know on a day which is so difficult for many people, I just want to express my own sympathies and to all the families who’ve lost loved ones over this weekend,” Chambers said.
“We’ll be renewing our efforts with An Garda Síochána and the other key agencies to ensure that we strengthen enforcement, make progress on the speeding review and increase the campaigns to ensure that people are aware of the serious issues that arise from speeding and other issues on our roads.”
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Bertie Ahern calling some one else useless ??? Carlsberg don’t do gobshites
Useless good for nothings??…Were in the right party then weren’t ye Bertie. Suited ye right down to the ground !
The man is living in cloud coo-coo land. He calls the people that over time, put him to the height of power – and now calls them useless?
Not only is he insulting to those that made him the top man but he should look in the mirror if he REALLY wants to see something that is truly a ‘useless good-for-nothing’.
What an absolute twat!
It is the attitude of every electede rep. in that party. Mary o’Rourke walked away from politics with 365k this year, 237 of a lump sum and 128 of an annual pension. When she saw that her son would never be able to carry win a seat, she turned on her local org. demanding expenses, something she had previously said she was not going to do SO, never had done IT. She was going to clean out Westmeath FF, people who as she said had “worked like blacks” for her for 30 years. Same with the Rat Ahern.
FF’ers shite down on each other as much as they do on Ireland and the Irish, it is the type of selfish worm that stuck with them through the Haughey and Ahern years.
If ye look up ‘useless good for nothings’ on the net the first pic you get should be that prick
Fianna Fail? Tea Parties?
Hmmmmm
The Rise And Fáil of Fianna Fall?
Why is this twat making news ?
Lashing out like a cornered rat.
Those who trumpet the party now would do well to heed the attitude of the upper echelons to those on the ground when it all goes Pete Tong. Cumanns up and down the country were treated as necessary evils by self serving TDs who kept themselves up, and everyone else down.
Instead of bread and circuses, they got the odd piss up, and a chance to have their picture taken with Bert and Biffo, or a chance to stand behind an RTE reporter and get themselves seen on TV.
No doubt they’ll think it’s different now though, even though the last election would project a different picture.
A bad workman blames his tools….and there’s an awful lot of tools in Fianna Fail, not least of which is Bertie.
Simon, love it! excellent! So true!
Best comment of the day Simon!
She was ridings him,of course she doesn’t think he’s corrupt.How could she sleep at night if she did.
She did a few oul bank runs for De Bert, didn’t she?
He gave her a cushy number with the National Consumer Agency as well, whereupon she promptly awarded a 200k contract to a fellow FFer.
There was some issue with a family member’s house as well, which I can’t recall.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be putting too much weight on Celia’s witterings.
She didn’t believe he was corrupt ? WTF !! She did well out of it herself. Bumbling B-B-Bertie has lost it – in more ways than one. A “cornered rat” as correctly stated in a reply.
You all bloody voted for him though !!!!!
never voted for him, bloody or otherwise!
your right these people sat back and let him do it and thought he was god.. Any Ass hole can run a country in good time he saw what was coming and bailed out…
Actually they voted for the party not for Bertie the bubble blaster.
Why is this creature being given publicity and airspace!
While she watche Bertie put “notches on the bedposts” was this the same time as she was being appointed to state agencies?
Multi -tasking at its best!
Never mind the visits to elm park!! In the back door.
Bertie should lock himself in a darkened room and………
….bottle of whiskey…..revolver?
Waste of a good bottle.
Yes go on….. And do is all a favour.
I can’t believe that our lunacy and idiocy as a nation still have FF as any kind of force or existence in Irish politics. Who gives a shit what Bertie says and about who – FF should crawl under the rock from whence they came… Scumbags.
Agreed. If men like Séan Moylan, Lemass, Aiken etc etc went to a FF Ard Fheis today, it would not work out well for everyone attending it. March the delegates up a back road and they would be shown how traitors are dealt with.
Cute Hoors and arrogant gobshites. That’s my view of FF.
“Eh, eh, eh, eh”, said Bertie, thinking up another lie.
Would whoever deleted my comment calling FF “a shower of despicable c**ts” care to explain why?
Unfortunately I can think of no other word that even comes close to expressing my disdain for the members of FF. Also, a comment above suggesting a dark room, bottle of whiskey and a revolver remains. Is that more acceptable than name calling? Not that I disagree with that comment.
That quote was Berties own comment in 2007 when asked about the warnings some economists where telling the Gov. about the property bubble going bang very soon. He suggested people who talk down the economy should do that Noddy. His words not mine… Nice guy wasn’t he!!!!!!
Oh I remember it well Jason Jason, who could forget it. Hence the term “despicable you-know-whats”.
Just Bertie jumping ship again. not his first time. wouldn’t like to do a bank job with Bertie would you ?
When you consider that Bertie is pretty much hated by most Irish people at this stage, it’s quite remarkable that he should make these comments to piss off the one group of people that may have still liked him.
A VERY bid “may”…
*big
Hello, Kettle? Bertie says you’re black.
Its his ‘devil may care’ attitude that annoys me the most….I guess we all should be bigger people and ignore this waste of space…
This is what Bertie thinks of the people of Ireland. And he was suppose to represent you. Are you listen voter, don’t think anything has changed.
Get back into da cupboard Bertie ya gombbeen!!
He is “Cribbing and Moaning” I hope that he takes his advice from a few years ago. To quote Shakespeare “nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it”.
How is this man still walking around free?
I suspect he knows too much about those that are still elected?
They might know that if he was going to ‘go down’ jail-wise, he might to a tell all and bring them down with him in revenge!
I’m sorry, but is B Aherne deluded? What he has done to this country in the time that he was in power is unforgiveable and dispictable, inhuman! He sounds like a spoiled little boy who didn’t get what he wanted for his birthday! Is he that pissed off that he actually thought he was going to be offered a nomination from F F for the Presidental Election? He has left the party (whom I do not support, I am an independent) in such a mess that it will take years for the electorate to trust them as a political party again. He has destroyed any good that was there years ago when it was formed.
Does Ms. C Ahern really think that we believe that she was an innocent little girl that lived and was in B Aherne’s company all that time and she still says that he was a good man and not guilty of anything?!!! Celia, you bring shame on other women, intelligent or not to say such a thing. An educated, business woman to come out with comments like that is hard to believe. If F F ever, ever had a thought of nominating Aherne for the Presidency, I would have no problem in moving away from Ireland and never coming back. Michael Martin may not have the balls Aherne had but at least, I think, he seems to be an honest individual.
He is not that honest, certain money from a developer comes to mind.
Not that good a business woman really. It folded didn’t it. The success only derived from her lover anyway. Bertie couldn’t even keep 1 woman happy at a time.
How will history remember him?
Not for rantings like this but for what he has done to cripple & destroy the country……….
Imagine that as your legacy, pretty terrible isn’t it?
He’ll be remembered for the phallic sympol in the middle of O’Connell Street sadly!
FF should change their name to the Seagull Party – they shit down on everyone !
This guy is such a deluded moron, anything he says should be ignored. He shouldn’t get the time on here or on TV3 for that matter, as it actually proves that what he says still has relevance. Nothing he says matters and the sooner this guy is ignored the better, as all he deserves is a lonely life talking to himself with no one taking a bit of notice of what he says.
Fantastic – 1 hour after Micheál Martin hits back at ‘blanket blame’ of Fianna Fáil, Bertie says this. I think he proved Micheál Martin wrong in record time. No other party needs to get involved with this car crash at the moment
Pot, kettle, black
It must be sickening to swindle cheat and lie your way through life, amass a fortune but never get the one thing you crave more than anything, a stint in the Aras.
Good!!
Dun do bheal Bertie.
is this the start of another in house attempt by ff to cast Michael Martin as representing some kind of “new ” fianna fail? credit people with some intelligence ffs!
Go.away.Bertie….
Astonishing that Bertie might be getting into hot water for telling the truth. Unchartered waters for the poor oul’ divil……
if he had listened and involved the grass roots members from the 70s and 80s we wouldnt be in this mess, and the first lie they ever told was in the name, the republician party ???????
Bumbling Bertie what a very dilusional man ,who should be behind bars with the rest of his cronies!!!
LOL! xD I just came on here to see people bash Bertie! Great jobs guys and gals! ;D
Me too. I never get tired of this, even if it is like shooting fish in a barrel!
The Grassroots were left to clean up his mess! Ordinary people motivated only to serve our local communities to the best of our ability were left broken, disillusioned, and disappointed by the legacy of Bertie Ahern and the self serving likes of him. The most cunning and deviant of them all indeed! More like the most deceiptful of them all. Thank God he is gone from politics and from Fianna Fail and that the people got rid of the free loaders and the wasters in the last General election. Now we can look forward to a bright new future for Fianna Fail and for our Country. Cleansed of the stench of those who served themselves before the people.
At the risk of being boiled in oil ,Bertie did play a pivotal role in bringing peace to this island. Unfortunately this great achievement is marred by the gombeenism that defined Fianna Fail. The nod and the wink , and the promise of " I know a fella that"ll sort that out for ya" was the way Irish society was happy to operate up to recent years. It’s a little too convenient to focus our anger on one individual. It was up to the electorate to call a halt years ago, not just to corruption but also to the catholic church. Instead we continued to blindly support politicians who has been implicated in wrong doing such as the Flynns and O’Leary. Kerry continues to inflict Healy Rae on us. We put Bertie where he was and he was king as long as our pockets were full. I agree he’s ultimately responsible but so is everyone that voted for Fianna Fail in the past.
Couldn’t agree with you more on the people who voted them in are to blame….. But that’s no relief for any of us who never voted for the crooks!
I wonder what Tommy Lavery thinks …
Enough that he cheated the country but to admit that he tried to cheat his wife and children by hiding money, now he plays the loving daddy and grandfather. A gurrier. His mistress was long employed by the tax-payer as a personal assistant prior to him becoming TEESHOCK. He screwed her then us.
Maybe if Bertie listened to the grass roots and not doing a solo run he and fianna fail wouldn’t be in the mess there in, for a supposedly intelligent man he has made many a gaffe, but when he tells us as minister for finance he didn’t have a bank account well that says it all.
If I were Martin, I’d distance myself from the Bert by using the “solo run” angle too.
When he gave, we loved. When he took, we hated. Was the same guy all along.. The GUBU. We voted and got what we paid for. FF have not changed since CJH. The nation knew it and we happily went with it as long as it got us more stuff. If the crisis hadn’t come, who’d be in power? FF.
You know it, I know it.
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