The payment comes in the week when a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General concluded that the driver testing service had made no progress in reducing the waiting lists or waiting times since the service was last reviewed in 1998.

The payment is to compensate the 120 testers for loss of travel and subsistence allowances following their transfer from the Department of Transport to the Road Safety Authority.

The streamlining of the test centres meant the testers were no longer required to work outside their normal test centre for which they were paid subsistence and allowance payments of almost 18,000 a year.

The Impact union, which represents the drivers, said that while testers would work the change they should be compensated for the loss of income. It sought a lump sum plus an ongoing allowance.

The Department offered a lump sum of 10,000 but no ongoing payment.

The public service arbitrator upped the lump sum payment to 15,000 but rejected an ongoing payment.

It is hoped that this deal will now finally clear the way for the Authority to make serious inroads into the waiting list which has remained stubbornly high.

Last week's Comptroller and Auditor General report noted that its last review showed a waiting list of 88,000 existed in 1998. While this was significantly reduced in early 2002, a sudden surge in applications in the context of the introduction of penalty points in late 2002/early 2003 which has never been cleared has seen the list rise to 133,000 in late 2006.

Similarly, waiting times for a test in 1998 was 30 weeks. While this has dropped to 27 weeks as of earlier this year, it is still well in excess of the service's target waiting period of 10 weeks, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Average pass rates have also dropped from 58% in 1998 to 52% today, the report noted.