Three-month wait for driving test in Athlone

Waiting times to sit the driving test in Athlone have climbed to three months, despite repeated Government attempts to the cut the queues, the latest Road Safety Authority figures has indicated. As of October 9 last, those who applied to do their driving test in Athlone in early to mid August are only now only being called for their examination of their driving skills. Add to this, a four-to-five week window between the time the appointment is received and the actual date for the test, and the hold up comes right up to or, in some cases, over the three-month mark. It's also emerged that the second test centre in Athlone, operated by a private test firm on behalf of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) closed on April 10 last and is no longer conducting tests in the town. A spokesperson for the RSA said the wait times have "reduced considerably" since the crackdown on provisional drivers back in 2007 and there is no longer a need for the second centre which was operated by SGS. "Athlone wouldn't be one of our bigger test centres in terms of wait times. Our target is to give appointments within 8-10 weeks," she added. Meanwhile, the situation is slightly better in Mullingar where appointments are being issued to those who contacted the RSA on September 4, meaning the wait is almost one month less than its South Westmeath counterpart. However, in terms of results, Athlone is the place to do your test with a 54.5% pass rate compared to 51.8% in Mullingar. Over 6,175 motorists in Westmeath still don't have a full driving licence, new figures have shown, despite a Government crackdown on provisional drivers which has reduced the figure by over 20% in twelve months. The statistics are included in the Department of Transport national Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics for 2008 published last recently, a report that shows a total of 49,414 driving licences were held in the Lake County last year, almost 13% of which were learner drivers. That's down from the previous year's figure of 7,745. Nationwide, last year there were 319,827 Learner Permit licences, a decrease of 107,897 on the 2007 figure.