Independent TD Carol Nolan has claimed that the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is "generating chaos" for learner drivers and road hauliers due to delays in test waiting times.

Nolan said she has written to the new chairperson of the Oireachtas transport committee - Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy - asking him to call senior RSA management to appear before the committee.

"[The RSA is] clearly an organisation not fit for purpose, with an increasingly abysmal track record that it generating chaos for learner drivers and industry sectors such as road hauliers," she said.

"Unfortunately, that came to nothing, with the result that, as of this March, over 81,000 people are waiting for a date for their test. This is a rise of 10,000 from 75,000 who were waiting in February," Nolan said.

She added: "We have wait times now of, on average, 24.1 weeks... How is that defensible and how is the RSA still in place, given the prolonged nature of this crisis, which is severely disrupting tens of thousands of people on an annual basis."

"I am also aware that this issue is causing huge concern to organisations such as the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA)," the TD said.

According to the IRHA, there were 842,260 learner drivers on Irish roads at the end of March. By comparison, at the end of 2019 there were 233,025 learner drivers on the roads. The IRHA said it obtained this information through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

Nolan said: "For the IRHA and indeed myself this clearly points to a system in crisis. It also points to increased levels of danger on the roads because learner drivers are being forced to make hard choices between travel for work or apprenticeships, or sitting at home with no access to work or education.

"We need a root and branch review of how the system has been brought to this point," she added.

In a statement to Agriland, the RSA said that the driving test system has experienced "unprecedented demand" in recent years, with the number of applications for a driving test increasing significantly since 2021.

The authority said that 253,850 driving tests were carried out in 2024, a record figure for one year. The RSA said that the provision of these tests "was only possible due to the support of our testing staff through significant levels of overtime and improvements in operational efficiencies".

The RSA also said a campaign for new driver testers was launched following government approval for an increase in permanent sanctioned testers in September 2024.

This will increase the number of permanent sanctioned testers from 130 to 200. In 2022, the figure was 100.

At the end of February, there were 144 permanent testers employed by the RSA, including 28 who had been temporary testers and who subsequently moved to permanent contracts at the beginning of the year, the RSA said.

The Department of Transport told Agriland that, as part of the agreement to boost the number of testers to 200, the RSA is required to restore the 10-week waiting time target.