Gerard P. Craughwell: use ex-military and Garda testers to cut waits
Gerard P. Craughwell spoke in the Dáil proposing that former Defence Forces driving instructors and ex-Gardaí be recruited as driving test examiners to reduce long waiting times. He said pension abatement is the principal barrier and asked the minister to raise the matter with another minister and the Senior Minister for Cabinet discussion.
He proposed using a "plethora of former driving instructors in the Defence Forces and former Gardaí" who would be easily qualified as testers. He argued these personnel are dispersed nationwide and could fill gaps quickly - for example, testers from Roscommon could serve in Galway and vice versa.
He cited current waiting times of 27 weeks rising to 40 weeks in some areas and referenced a commitment to reduce waits by 10 weeks by September. He expressed interest in seeing how that reduction will be achieved without tapping additional qualified testers.
He warned that pension abatement prevents retired public servants returning to work as testers, saying it deters experienced candidates from re-entering the service. He urged the minister to bring the issue to another minister and the Senior Minister and to have it discussed at Cabinet to enable rapid recruitment.
He recalled his own 1980s ANCO truck training course of eight weeks, with a test at the end and commercial driving within about nine weeks, to illustrate how quickly skilled roles can be filled. He suggested many retired instructors left service in their mid-50s and could be better deployed as testers, and then handed over to Senator Keoghan.
Proposal to recruit former military and Garda testers
He proposed using a "plethora of former driving instructors in the Defence Forces and former Gardaí" who would be easily qualified as testers. He argued these personnel are dispersed nationwide and could fill gaps quickly - for example, testers from Roscommon could serve in Galway and vice versa.
Scale of the waiting-time problem
He cited current waiting times of 27 weeks rising to 40 weeks in some areas and referenced a commitment to reduce waits by 10 weeks by September. He expressed interest in seeing how that reduction will be achieved without tapping additional qualified testers.
Pension abatement presented as impediment
He warned that pension abatement prevents retired public servants returning to work as testers, saying it deters experienced candidates from re-entering the service. He urged the minister to bring the issue to another minister and the Senior Minister and to have it discussed at Cabinet to enable rapid recruitment.
Personal experience underlining urgency
He recalled his own 1980s ANCO truck training course of eight weeks, with a test at the end and commercial driving within about nine weeks, to illustrate how quickly skilled roles can be filled. He suggested many retired instructors left service in their mid-50s and could be better deployed as testers, and then handed over to Senator Keoghan.
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Transcript
Minister Buttermore, I was going to call you Senator Buttermore. What a pleasure it is to see you here and congratulations on your election to the Dáil and your elevation to Ministerial Post. I know from my time with you on the Transport Committee in the last period or the last government that you have a commitment yourself personally to the waiting times with respect to drivers and I know you're fairly committed to the argument we're having here today. 27 weeks rising to 40 weeks in some areas, that's an awful lot of time. A commitment to reduce by 10 weeks by September. I'd be really interested to see how we do that but I'm going to offer you a solution today that you might bring to Minister Canney. We have a plethora of former driving instructors in the Defence Forces and former Gardaí who would be very easily qualified as testers and would greatly assist the reduction of waiting times. They're also situated all over the country so there wouldn't be great problems in finding people say in Roscommon that could test in Galway, Galway test in Roscommon, etc. There's one slight impediment and that is the issue of pension abatement. Nobody will come back into the public service where pension abatement exists. So I would ask you to bring that to both Minister Canney and to the Senior Minister and maybe have it discussed at Cabinet. I think we could see movement very, very quickly in getting testers into the system. I think back to my own time in the mid-1980s when my business went bust and I went to ANCO and took a driver training programme on a truck. It lasted eight weeks. I got my test at the end of the course and I was driving trucks commercially within, what, nine weeks or thereabouts. I wasn't a very good driver but I drove trucks anyhow and I put dinner on the table. So at the end of the day, I think there is a solution there. I think the solution is to use what assets we have in the country. Military driving instructors would have also been testers within the military so they would be well qualified to test members of the public. And if we're to see reductions happening rapidly, let's use the people we have. A lot of these guys had to retire in their mid-50s and they're now probably doing jobs that really aren't suitable for the skills that they would bring. So I would ask you to consider that, reintroducing military and Gardaí people as testers. And I'll hand over to Senator Keoghan now. Thank you.