Amid high National Car Test (NCT) failure rates, one Cavan councillor is calling for the supposed “money racket” to be scrapped and reformed.
A report from the Irish Independent yesterday found that nearly half of the 1.5 million vehicles that did the NCT last year failed.
Cavan NCT Centre reported the highest failure rate at 59%, with Derrybeg NCT Centre in Donegal following closely behind at 56%.
Operated by Spanish company Applus, the NCT service was introduced in 2000 to prevent road accidents caused by faulty vehicles.
24 years later, however, independent Cavan councillor Shane O’Reilly said the test should be reevaluated – and most likely scrapped.
“A 50% fail rate throughout the length and breadth of the country shows perhaps the NCT in its current guise is not fit for purpose,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
“There is no doubt the NCT has taken quite a few jalopies off the road and very unsafe cars that had not been checked.
“However, I do believe the NCT now is looking at things within the realms of its terms of reference that are not really going to lead to driver safety.”
High NCT fail rate
Cllr O'Reilly noted when the NCT was first introduced, it evaluated a car based on “stirring, suspension, lights, a safety aspect and tyres”.
“What we have done now – without legislation – is the company have introduced a raft of other extremes within the realms of the test,” he said.
“It has now led to an extreme amount of people failing their test.”
Cllr O’Reilly said he recently spoke to one of his constituents, an elderly woman, who had to bring her car for an NCT three times before passing.
“The NCT failed on headlights, she went back to her local garage who fixed it up for her, she went back for a retest and still didn’t pass,” he explained.
“She had to go to the main dealer.
“We constantly hear from people it’s a money racket and that’s something people genuinely fear.”
Inspection criteria
The NCT currently inspects cars based on brakes, suspension, steering, lights, bodywork (including operation of doors and locks), glass and mirrors, and carbon emissions.
The report from the Independent found steering and suspension problems were the main cause of NCT failure at 14.6%.
Lighting ranked second at 14.3% while the side slip test, which measures the ability of a car’s ability to drive on a flat road without touching the steering wheel, resulted in 11.7% of failures.
According to legislation, a car must get an NCT every two years once it is four years old and every year when the car is 10 years old.
Road safety
Cllr O’Reilly pointed out many Irish people can’t afford to buy new cars and then face more NCT costs.
“People can’t afford to change [their cars],” he said.
“People - myself included, I have four cars, three of them require an NCT – are keeping them longer and doing their best to keep up with daily commitments.”
There have been increased concerns about road safety as 2023 saw a 19% increase in fatalities from crashes.
Some three people have died in road crashes so far this year: a man in his 20s in Kildare, a motorcyclist in Cavan, and a woman in her 40s in Kildare.
