Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe said that Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has “failed utterly” in trying to tackle the waiting list in the Tallaght driving test centre.
Figures from the RSA show the backlog now stands at 17,725. New figures revealed that since Ryan took up the post of Minister for Transport in 2020, the waiting list for a driving test in Tallaght has grown by more than ten thousand people. Crowe noted that the waiting list in Tallaght is greater than the population of Leixlip. “When Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan took office in June of 2020, there were less than 7,000 waiting in Tallaght. By any standard of judgement, the Minister has failed the people of Tallaght abysmally.” “This is not a new problem. I raised it in the Dáil with the then-Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in 2022 and was informed that it was ‘important that people get a timely driving test’. I asked that additional staff were deployed to Tallaght but this didn’t come close to meeting demand. That is when I approached Minister Ryan directly about the need for an additional testing centre to serve south Dublin, but I was rebuffed.” “I have written to minister Ryan again today to highlight the case for an additional testing centre in south Dublin. Tallaght represents over 10% of the entire backlog in a system that has over 40 testing centres. Temporary measures and additional staff clearly aren’t going to cut it anymore.” “The Minister has failed the people of Tallaght who so desperately need a driving licence by forcing them into a queue that takes months and years to get through, all the while they are faced with barriers in accessing education, employment, and childcare.”