JOE Duffy’s public phone lines were hopping last week with disgruntled citizens calling to register their disgust.
The parent conglomerate of NCT Service (NCTS) Ltd, the company which runs the Na- tional Car Test (NCT) service in the Republic, had just publicised it’s profits for the fiscal year, and the sums mentioned upset the right-think- ing members of Irish society.
They were complaining of course, because the company was returning exorbitant profits, because they regarded the test as fussy, and be- cause they were suspicious about the degree of fortune, which seemed to be required to pass the test.
Many even made the direct assumption that the entire service amounted to a scam whereby the company could extract hard cash from an unsuspecting Irish public by failing vehicles for trivialities.
No one mentioned that the cost of the Irish NCT is the second lowest in Europe, when compared to similar national testing schemes across the continent.
But aren’t these gestures a little late?
Only last May, members of the public on a national basis, were given the opportunity to suggest changes to the National Car Test (NCT) at a series of road shows held in Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Cork, Kilkenny and Longford.
Six public consultation meetings took place, and the general public were asked to give their views on the NCT and suggest how the service could be improved.
It’s strange that complaints now seem so prevalent, because the consultation process,
well publicised by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the Department of Transport, only at- tracted 250 public attendees in total. Bizarre.
If the general public were harbouring such fervent views on the matter, why didn’t they then make their feelings known? Instead they choose to air their lop-sided views on the mat- ter to anyone who will listen three months Eire
As with everything people fear that which they don’t understand. These people aren’t concerned about pesky EU directives, or about jalopy’s held together with bailing twine cruis- ing around.
A famous anecdote among NCT testers is the one about the woman who arrived at her test centre with her certificate of registration, con- firmation letter and car keys, but no car. Then there was the man from the border area who demanded that the vehicle inspector reimburse him for the petrol used by the testers driving his car from one end of the centre to the oth- er. There was another innocent who believed that a little divine intervention might help. A man in Cavan suggested that a church could be erected beside the test centre so that customers could go in and say a prayer for their car while Weloava eI Kole
Typical.
If mandatory car testing had not been made compulsory by EU directive, it would argu- ably never have been introduced here at all. As it was, we were the last EU member state to introduce it, even though it was desperately required since between 1990 and 2000 the vol- ume of cars on our roads increased by 60%.
The NCT was introduced five years ago when new EU legislation made such car testing com-
pulsory in member states.
Testing is carried out at 43 centres across the country under a ten-year contract awarded by the government to afore mentioned company.
AA Ireland independently monitor these test centres and while they suggest that some as- pects of the test could be improved, they re- gard the system as considerably better than the British MOT. According to AA Ireland, if you maintain your car reasonably well, it should sail through the test.
And so once again for anyone who wasn’t lis- tening five years ago.
The testing of privately owned vehicles be- gan in the Republic on January 4, 2000.
It was introduced to improve road safety, en- vironmental protection and to comply with the EU Directive 96/96/EC, which makes car test- ing compulsory in all EU member states.
The test fee is €49.00 and a re-test costs €27.50 (both fees are inclusive of VAT).
There are 57 elements to each test, which endeavour to assess the roadworthiness of ve- hicles and identify any defects, such as faulty brakes, unbalanced wheels and thread worn tyres. Detected defects must be repaired and the vehicle must pass a re-test before the car owner will be issued with an NCT Certificate.
Advantages?
The NCT is conducted on any given vehicle every 2 years and this regular evaluation will result in more frequent car servicing, which will provide better fuel economy, reduce over- all repair costs, increase reliability, and lower the risk of breakdowns.
The NCT will ensure that second hand cars are roadworthy. As with all eligible cars for testing, second hand cars will have to display
an NCT disc as proof that they have passed their NCT. This should improve overall indus- try standards and enhance air quality by reduc- ing emissions.
National car testing is likely to reduce the number of road accidents, which may as a con- sequence result in potentially lower insurance premiums.