When did the Raheny driving test centre close?

Raheny ran its last driving tests on Friday 18 September 2026. The Killester centre has taken over the Raheny service, with testing there from Monday 21 September 2026.

Did I need to do anything if I was waiting for a test at Raheny?

No. The transfer was automatic: the RSA moved applications to Killester and informed every affected applicant by email. Only applications and appointments after 18 September 2026 moved, so a test that was already booked at Raheny before that date took place there. The RSA's email is your confirmation either way.

Is the Raheny closure permanent?

The RSA says no. After initially signalling a permanent closure on 12 August 2026, an RSA spokesman said the next day that the centre would reopen in "six months to two years", though no precise timeline was given.

Will my wait be shorter at Killester?

Nobody can promise you a number, and the early evidence is not encouraging. The RSA expected waits in the area to improve. In the August 2026 CSO figures, the first full month published after the closure was announced, Killester was at 16 weeks and rising — higher than the 12-week reading quoted in mid-August, and that is before the transferred Raheny applications were worked through. The Irish Times reported that 2,855 Raheny applications were transferring into a Killester queue of almost 1,400, and the campaign group Parc warned the centre could be swamped. One month is not a trend, but so far it is the cautious case that is playing out, not the optimistic one.

News · Driving Test · North Dublin

Raheny Test Centre Has Closed — Your Test Moved to Killester

The RSA has shut the Raheny driving test centre — for months the one with the longest waiting time in the country — and moved every waiting application to Killester, about a kilometre away. Here's what happened, why you needed to do almost nothing, and how the Killester queue is actually moving now.

📅 Published 28 August 2026 · updated 20 September 2026🇮🇪 Raheny & Killester, Co. Dublin⏱ 6 min read

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What happened

The dates, the distance, and what you had to do.

18 Sept
2026

Raheny’s last tests (Friday)

21 Sept
2026

Killester takes over (Monday)

~1 km

Between the two centres

On 12 August 2026 the RSA confirmed that the driving test centre in Raheny, Co. Dublin would run its last tests on Friday 18 September 2026, and it did. Applications and test appointments after that date transferred to the Killester test centre, which takes over the Raheny service with testing from Monday 21 September 2026. Killester is an established test centre at St. Brigid's Parish Resource Centre, 306 Howth Road — about a kilometre from the Raheny site.

The short version for anyone who was waiting at Raheny: you didn't need to do anything. The transfer was automatic — the RSA moved applications to Killester and told everyone affected by email. Only applications and appointments after 18 September moved, so a test already booked before that date went ahead at Raheny; the RSA's email is your confirmation either way.

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Why it closed

Not falling demand — a building site nearby.

Raheny did not close because nobody wanted tests there. The opposite: for months it had the longest waiting time of any test centre in the State. The problem was construction — a €27 million development for older people near the centre. The RSA said the building works had been severely restricting the centre's capacity to deliver tests, and Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney has said the construction and road works in the vicinity disrupted the routes around it.

In July, RSA chief operating officer Brendan Walsh told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that the building works had "basically crippled our ability to deliver tests" at Raheny, and that the RSA was taking on more space at Killester. According to The Irish Times, only two driver testers had been working at Raheny for some time, and on 29 July the RSA received sanction to close the centre, once the extra space at Killester was secured.

Canney has said the RSA was asked to find an alternative location, and that it is also looking at opening another test centre in Dublin. Separately, a new centre at the Springfield Hotel in Leixlip was added to the RSA's list, with tests from 1 September 2026.

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Permanent or temporary?

The answer changed within 24 hours.

Wednesday 12 August 2026

The RSA confirms tests will end at Raheny on 18 September — an announcement that signalled a permanent closure.

Thursday 13 August 2026

An RSA spokesman tells The Irish Times the closure is temporary and the centre will reopen in "six months to two years" — but can't give a precise timeline.

Treat the reopening as unknown. "Six months to two years" is a wide window with no committed date. If you're waiting for a test in the area, plan around Killester — not around Raheny reopening.

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What happened to your application

The transfer was automatic — here's the sequence.

Nothing to do — the move was automatic

The RSA moved the tests from Raheny to nearby Killester, took extra space there, and emailed everyone affected to confirm that their application had been moved.

Watch your email (and spam folder)

The email from the RSA is the confirmation that your application now sits with Killester.

Know the new address before test day

Killester test centre: St. Brigid's Parish Resource Centre, 306 Howth Road, Killester, Dublin 5 — listed on the RSA's official centre list. Arriving at the wrong building eats your slot.

Prefer a different centre? That's still your call

Centre preference is managed through your MyRoadSafety account — the same portal you applied through. If Killester doesn't suit you, see our guide to the Dublin test centres for what each one is like.

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Will the wait get better or worse?

We said the numbers pointed both ways. One month on, they are pointing one way.

The case for better, as it stood in August

Killester's waiting time was being quoted at 12 weeks in mid-August 2026, against 29 weeks at Raheny at the end of July
Raheny had been running with only two testers; Killester was getting extra space as part of the move
The RSA expected waits in the area to improve

The case for caution, as it stood in August

The Irish Times reported that 2,855 Raheny applications were transferring into a Killester queue of almost 1,400
Parc, the road-safety campaign group, warned Killester could be swamped by the extra applications, pushing its waiting times up
From 1 November 2026 the new learner permit rules take effect — Parc's founder has warned the floodgates will open then. See our guide to the four-year permit rule

What has actually happened since

So far it is the cautious case that is playing out. The August 2026 CSO figures, published on 8 September, put Killester at 16 weeks and rising — four weeks higher than the 12-week reading quoted in mid-August, and that is before a single transferred Raheny application had been worked through. The national published average that month was 11.6 weeks against a 10-week target, and even that reads better than it is: it fell from 12.1 weeks in July only because Raheny dropped out of the table, while the centres open in both months got slightly worse on average.

We are not going to overstate that. One month is not a trend. A single centre’s figure moves for reasons that have nothing to do with a transfer, and August’s data predates the handover entirely — the 2,855 transferred applications only start working through the Killester list from Monday 21 September 2026. The honest reading is narrower: the optimistic case above rested on Killester being at 12 weeks and falling, and it is not. Plan around a queue of several months at Killester, and treat an improvement as a bonus rather than as the plan.

Killester now runs what were Raheny’s tests, so its queue is the number worth watching, and we will keep showing it here as each month is published. See Killester’s current waiting time alongside every other centre.

For context on how fast this moved: Raheny’s wait grew from 17 weeks at the end of May 2026 to 29 weeks by the end of July, and in mid-August The Irish Times reported that a fresh applicant there faced roughly half a year just to be invited to book. Whatever happens at Killester, applying early still matters — our waiting times guide explains how the queue and the invitation system actually work, and why the published figure is the wait to an invitation rather than to test day.

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What it means for your preparation

Same part of Dublin, different centre, different routes.

The test area shifted, but not far. Killester is close to Raheny, so you are still testing in north-east Dublin — but tests now start and finish at the Howth Road centre, not the Raheny one.
Killester is not a new centre. Unlike Leixlip, a brand-new centre with no testing history before September 2026, Killester is an established centre with its own waiting list and its own testing history.
If you had prepared for Raheny, don't panic. The skills the examiner marks — observation, position, progress, junctions, roundabouts — are the same at every centre. What changes is local knowledge: where the tricky junctions are and which roads the routes tend to use.
Rehearse the logistics. New address, new parking, new waiting room. Do a dry run to the Howth Road centre before test day, and go through our test-day checklist the night before — including the insurance certificate rule in force since March 2026.

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Frequently asked questions

The short answers.

When exactly does Raheny close?

The centre runs its last tests on Friday 18 September 2026. Killester takes over the service with tests from Monday 21 September 2026.

Did I need to reapply or rebook?

No. The transfer was automatic — the RSA moved applications to Killester and emailed everyone affected. Only appointments after 18 September moved, so a test booked before that date went ahead at Raheny.

Is this permanent?

The RSA says no — after initially signalling a permanent closure, it said the centre would reopen in "six months to two years". No date has been committed, so plan around Killester for now.

Where exactly is the Killester centre?

St. Brigid's Parish Resource Centre, 306 Howth Road, Killester, Dublin 5 — about a kilometre from the Raheny site, and listed on the RSA's official centre list.

Will my wait be shorter now?

Nobody can promise you a number, and the early sign is not good. Killester was 16 weeks and rising in the August 2026 CSO figures, up from the 12 weeks quoted in mid-August — and that was before the transferred applications landed. One month is not a trend, but plan around several months rather than around the RSA's expected improvement.

Why did Raheny close at all?

Construction — a €27 million development for older people near the centre. The RSA said the building works severely restricted its ability to run tests there.

Test moved? Get ready for it properly.

Wherever your test ends up, the marking sheet is the same nationwide. A pre-test lesson or a full mock test under examiner conditions tells you where you stand before the real thing.

Pre-test lessons → Book online

Sources

TheJournal.ie — Raheny driving test centre to close in September (12 August 2026)
The Irish Times — Raheny driving test centre closure is a temporary measure for 'six months to two years' (13 August 2026)
Newstalk — The RSA to close Raheny driving test centre (13 August 2026)
RSA — Where to take the driving test (official centre list, checked 20 September 2026)
CSO table ROA36, Driving Test Waiting Time (RSA data; August 2026 figures published 8 September 2026, retrieved 20 September 2026). Source of the Killester and national figures above. The statistic measures estimated time to a test invite, not time to test day.