Hauliers accuse RSA of 'massaging' driver testing figures
It accused the RSA of moving testers from articulated truck, bus and truck tests to car tests in order to reduce wait times for car driving tests, adding that waiting times for commercial driving tests have increased "exponentially".
Hauliers have said that this has caused the waiting lists for driving tests for a car to fall by 10% between April and June but has led to a "significant increase" in the wait times for truck (42%) and articulated truck (40%) tests during the same period.
The association has described it as a "crisis in the making" for the commercial driving industry.
IRHA president Ger Hyland said young Irish drivers who need a license to drive a bus, truck or HGV "cannot get licenses" because the RSA "have all but stopped commercial testing to focus on car testing."
He claimed that driving school owners have said commercial driving license testing in Ireland has all but stopped over the last two months.
"That means no new bus drivers, truck drivers, HGV drivers," he said.
Mr Hyland claimed the actions of the RSA are "stifling economic growth in rural Ireland by delaying the qualification of suitably qualified professional drivers who are desperately needed to support small and medium sized businesses across the country."
Number of applicants waiting for tests increased
According to figures provided by the Central Statistics Office to the association, there was a 27% increase in the number of driving test applicants waiting at month end for a test between June 2024 and June 2025.
Between April and June this year, the RSA recorded a 10% drop in the number of driving test applicants.
However, the number of applicants waiting for an articulated truck license test between April and June 2025 rose by 39.6%.
The number of applicants waiting at month end for a category C truck license driving test rose by 42% between April and June 2025, going from 907 to 1289 people.
The figures show a decrease in new driving test applications for category C truck licenses of 12.6% between April and June 2025.
It also recorded an 8.5% decrease for new category CE articulated truck tests between April and June 2025.
The CSO figures also show that the 'driving test applicants scheduled' for cars/light vans between April and June 2025 increased by 49.2% from 15,287 tests to 22,810 scheduled tests.
The number of scheduled tests for category C trucks fell by 61.8% from 356 to 136, while those for articulated trucks (CE license) fell by 69% from 242 tests scheduled in April 2025 to 75 tests in June.
IRHA call on Govt to remove testing from RSA
Mr Hyland claimed these figures coincide with a period where Minister of State Séan Canney met with the RSA leadership in the Department of Transport, giving a deadline to the RSA to return in two weeks with "sustainable proposals to improve driving test wait times".
The IRHA has called on Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien to remove the driver testing system from the RSA "before any more damage to the Irish economy is done".
"The RSA know that the car testing figures are what will garner more media and political focus. That is why they moved their resources there, at the expense of the commercial driving sector.
"They just moved the driving test crisis from cars to commercial vehicles, leading to severe backlogs in the testing system for bus, HGV and truck drivers," he said.
"These are the drivers we need to bring tourists around, deliver goods and keep our economy running. The RSA have learned nothing in the past six months and have demonstrated that their organisation is clearly not fit for purpose."
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