THE ROAD SAFETY Authority is planning on opening an additional driving test centre in South Dublin.

In a statement to The Journal, an RSA spokesperson said it is currently looking for a suitable facility.

The spokesperson remarked that the location of driving test centres is determined on a number of factors including demand for services in the area, proximity to other test centres, and availability of staff to operate a centre.

Additional factors are the availability of suitable road network for conducting a driving test and the availability of appropriate facilities to house a driving test centre.

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for Dublin, Mark Ward, welcomed the plans.

He remarked that Tallaght is the only centre for the whole of the South Dublin County Council area, and it also has the highest waiting lists in the state.

“Over 13,000 people are languishing on lists for a driving test in Tallaght,” said Ward.

“People waiting for a test in Tallaght are on average waiting for 27 weeks, this is not good enough.”

He said Sinn Féin has been calling for increased resourcing, increasing the recruitment of driving test instructors, and creating additional driving test centre locations.

“An additional driving test centre in South Dublin will go a long way to tackle waiting times,” said Ward.

He added that long waiting times “push up the costs of learning to drive and trap learner drivers in expensive insurance policies”.

“For some, learning to drive now costs over €3,000.

“The backlog even leads to disruptions in other vital services, as students or workers who rely on their licence are waiting in limbo.”

He noted that there have also been delays to the recruitment of Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus drivers, as well as to paramedics as they require a licence to start their course.

Ward said that locating a suitable facility must be a priority for the RSA “so that it can become operational as soon as possible and waiting lists brought down”.

Ward added that he has contacted Trasport Minister Darragh O’Brien to “express the urgency for this”.

“Waiting times need to come down over the next number of months and the state needs to start meeting their statutory obligations of 10 weeks rather than half a year that we are seeing currently.”