Nearly 65,000 people across the country are waiting for a driving test.
The list has grown by 27% since October, when it stood at just over 50,000.
17 test centres have over 1,000 on their waiting lists, and nearly 6,700 are waiting in Tallaght in Dublin.
There are two test centres locally, one in Carlow and the other in Kilkenny with more than 3,000 local driving hopefuls across the two counties waiting.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has confirmed to KCLR News that there are 1,847 in Carlow of which 625 have been deemed ineligible for an appointment because a qualifying condition not yet met eg mandatory lessons were incomplete while 413 of the 1,528 in Kilkenny were ineligible.
Brian Farrell, from the organisation says the pandemic has had a big impact noting “For quite significant periods we’ve been only able to deliver driving tests to those that are classed as essential workers and that’s certainly having a big impact, the fact that we’re reduced capacity in the driving test as well given the fact that we have to administer a test in the Pandemic, you know, and introduce protocols to make sure that both our staff and customers are safe has reduced the number of tests we can do”.
