The figures from the end of September show an increase of 12,257 learner drivers on our roads since March of this year.
President of the Irish Road Haulage Association Ger Hyland described the increase in drivers without full licences as a road safety crisis.
“To have 394,128 inexperienced drivers on our roads is a testament to the failure of the Road Safety Authority and their mismanagement of our driver testing system,” Mr Hyland said.
Drivers who are operating on a learner permit are required to be accompanied by a fully licensed driver. Despite this Garda figures show that in the first three months of 2025, there were 2,754 learner drivers issued with fixed charge notices for not complying with this rule.
Figures obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request to the RSA, showed the the largest cohort of learner drivers (96,130) are between the ages of 30-39, demonstrating that people are waiting until later on in life to achieve fully licensed driver status, Mr Hyland said.
Some 410 learner drivers recorded, were over 80 years of age.
In terms of the counties that have the highest number of drivers on learner permits, Dublin (118,865), Cork (42,660) and Kildare (19,583) had the highest incidence rate.
Mr Hyland hit out at the Road Safety Authority driver testing system, which he said “millions of taxpayers euros are being pumped into” in order to try to clear the “chronic backlog.”
He called on Junior Transport Minister Seán Canney to address the concerns of road safety advocacy groups across the country, and said that “over 30 organisations representing road safety, cycling, and pedestrian advocacy groups across Ireland issued a joint statement last year expressing a lack of confidence in the Irish Road Safety Authority.”
He said there were vast numbers of Irish people waiting for car, truck and bus driving tests and that the IRHA no longer has confidence in the data provided by the RSA,
“How are we supposed to accept that around 10pc of Ireland’s driving public are on some kind of learner permit? We have been asking questions of the RSA for the past 12 months on behalf of our members and the driving public. The RSA have ducked, dived and dodged accountability and transparency and it is high time that Minister Sean Canney called them to task,” he said.
The IRHA president added that the figures show that the largest cohort of learner drivers (96,130) are between the ages of 30- 39 “indicating that drivers are leaving it late to undertake their driving test. 90,688 learner drivers were between 17-20″.
Holders of learner driver permits in Ireland. Source: RSA
When asked for comment, the RSA said it has achieved sustained improvements in driving test wait times, at a time when “applications remain at record levels, with 104,926 driving test applications received between July and October 2025”.
The RSA reported the conducting of 28,198 driving tests in October – over 7,000 more than in May – which was before the implementation of the Driving Test Action Plan.
They RSA also said it welcomed changes to regulations signed by the Minister for Transport, in order to address the problem repeat learner-permit renewals, where drivers were able to get repeat provisional licences without ever sitting a test.
“The changes, which take effect from 1 November 2026, will ensure that learner permits continue to serve their intended purpose — to help people learn to drive safely, build real experience behind the wheel, and develop the skills needed to pass the driving test,” a spokesperson said.