Over 10,000 people across the city and county are currently waiting to sit their driving test, and another nearly 7,000 are on the list for the theory test
Sinn Fein say that the 80 additional Driving Testers positions, approved by the Minister for Transport, are still not filled. The RSA say that 40 of these testers will start working this month.
The Road Safety Authority has allocated extra resources to deal with the waiting list, and expects to have the waiting time reduced to 10 weeks by early next year.
Speaking to RedFM News, Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire says urgent action is required:
"This is primarily affecting younger people waiting for driving tests at this point in time in Cork, in the Sarsfield Road Centre and elsewhere around the county. It's having a huge impact. They need to be able to get their licence to get jobs, to get their independence, and they're being held back from that. So we need to take on more testers, and we need to get these waiting times down, and we need to be looking at flexible solutions here in terms of how these are timetabled. We've been calling on Minister Eamon Ryan to do them for a long time. He's beginning to wake up to it but it needs urgent action."
