FIVE WEEKS HAVE been shaved off average driving test waiting times since the start of the month, as the Road Safety Authority (RSA) responds to political pressure to reduce the backlog.

Brendan Walsh, who is in charge of driver testing at the RSA, told The Journal that by July the average wait should be down to 18 weeks, from 22 weeks as of yesterday and 27 weeks at the end of April.

“Come July, we would hope to start seeing really, really big decreases, starting at around 18 weeks and then driving on down,” Walsh said.

He added that staff have stepped up by working Saturdays and bank holidays to clear the backlog. Forty-one new testers have started work and 50 more will be in place by the end of the summer.

The government is pushing the RSA to hit a long-standing target that waiting times should average 10 weeks. The agency has been told to meet this goal by September.

The RSA published its plan to achieve this aim this morning. The RSA’s testing system is dealing with “unprecedented” demand for driving tests, with 100,000 currently wait to be tested.

Over 250,000 tests were completed by the agency last year, the highest number ever – but still not enough to clear the backlog.

RSA chief operations officer Brendan Walsh RSA RSA

The RSA is opening more testing centres and expanding testing hours, with tests to run from 07:25am to 7pm going forward, it said today.

It said it will also use a targeted booking system so that areas with greatest demand will be allocated slots proportionally.

Work to deal with the testing backlog began almost a year ago, Walsh said.

The RSA sought government approval to recruit significantly more driving testers – equivalent to a 20% increase in the organisation’s headcount – last June. However, it took some time for this recruitment process, which was approved by government last September, to be completed.

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Sam Waide, chief executive officer at the RSA, apologised this morning to those who have been waiting a long time to get tested.

“We know how frustrating and disruptive these delays are — especially for people who need a licence for work, college, or caring responsibilities,” Waide said in a statement.

The RSA will publish progress updates on wait times every fortnight on its website.

“We’re asking customers to support the effort by cancelling early if they cannot attend, so that appointments can be offered to others. Every cancelled slot that’s re-used helps us reduce the backlog faster,” said Waide.

“Also, we’re urging customers to ensure they prepared for their test as over 4,000 tests so far this year couldn’t be conducted for reasons such as vehicles without a valid NCT, Tax, Insurance or not deemed roadworthy.”