This article is from page 12 of the 2011-07-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
DRIVERS taking their test in Kilrush are waiting almost twice as long for a test dates than cadidates in other parts of the country.
On Friday last, a comparison of waiting times with other centres on the Road Safety Authority’s (RSA) own site showed a wait of 17 weeks to get a driving test in Kilrush.
This was incomparison with a wait of just eight weeks in Shannon, ten weeks in any test centre in Limerick city or county, and ten weeks in County Galway. Ennis, the county town also had a longer than average waiting time, with drivers waiting twelve weeks for a chance to progress to their full licence.
When contacted by The Clare People , a spokeswoman for the RSA said that the wait this week is down to twelve weeks, but the site still lists it as a 17-week wait.
The Clare representative for the Irish Drivers Association, a pressure group campaigning against such issues as higher VRT on imported vehicles and compulsory NCTs, John Learnihan, said the wait is too long.
“17 weeks is a disgraceful length of time for anyone to have to wait for a driving test but the fact is, and the RSA won’t admit it, they don’t have enough testers. Only the people who registered with them can carry out a test and there aren’t enough of them.”
Mr Learnihan said that the long wait in Clare is made all the more outrageous in light of new legislation which compels learner drivers to produce evidence of having taken ten hours of driving lessons before they will be allowed sit the test.
“At as much as € 70 an hour in some places in Clare, that’s € 700. How are young drivers expected to meet these costs? They just don’t have the money. And now the RSA will tell us which instructors we can go to for lessons – it’s a money racket, nothing more.”