Now transport minister Martin Cullen plans to spend a further 10m buying in another 100,000 tests from the private sector in a desperate attempt to reduce the waiting list before the general election.

The minister has also agreed to recruit extra stateemployed driver testers.

Existing staff will get up to 50 for each extra test they do after normal working hours.

A spokesman for the Road Safety Authority, which operates the driving test system, said that an announcement of the extra tests will be made "within the next few weeks".

Although he agreed the backlog remained high, he said the waiting time had been reduced from an average of 40 weeks last year to 27 weeks today. Waiting times vary considerably, rising from 11 weeks in Cavan to 59 weeks in Navan.