James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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332. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if there are plans to make the driver theory test available to take online which would allow the applicants to go ahead and take their test and reduce the backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18806/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The RSA is working to deliver an online driver theory test service. It was trialled in December on a pilot basis for those taking a theory test for trucks and buses. The pilot is now being evaluated and the RSA is committed to extending the service for all theory test types during 2021. There will be a limit on the number of customers that can avail of the service during the initial rollout phase, but the objective is that it should be an option for all theory test customers during later phases of the rollout.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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333. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to recruit more testers for driver tests to help get through the backlog of applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18812/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is liaising with the RSA on an ongoing basis to help the service meet the growing demand for tests within the current public health situation.

An additional 40 driver testers have been authorised by my Department along with 36 approved for retention or rehire in 2020. The RSA is making good progress in the recruitment process and the expectation is that the new testers will be available to conduct tests by the end of June 2021. As well as recruiting and training these additional 40 testing staff currently, the recruitment campaign has allowed the creation of a recruitment panel from which additional numbers can be taken on board if justified and necessary in light of progress, when full-service resumes.

The health of both the public and the testers themselves must take priority, and as a result it is important to recognise that it will take time to get driver testing waiting times back to normal pre-Covid levels. The driving test creates particular difficulties, given the need for a tester and a test candidate to sit in close proximity in the same vehicle for a substantial period of time, as well as the fact that testers are moving between vehicles provided by test candidates, which are not controllable work environments. It is a tribute to the care taken by the RSA and its staff that there has been no case of Covid transmission attributable to the driving test, in spite of many thousands of tests conducted since the resumption of services last summer.