RSA Driving Test Centres testers are being instructed to only conduct tests in vehicles that have a valid NCT, despite an ongoing issue with lengthy backlogs.
Today, the Fórsa trade union - which represents driver testers at the Road Safety Authority - issued the updated advisory.
There have been many complaints in recent months from drivers who are faced with extremely long wait times to have their NCT completed.
READ MORE: The key trick that will get you an NCT appointment fast as people hit out at lengthy six month waits
During Covid, the requirement for a valid NCT certificate on cars arriving in for a driving test was suspended due to NCT services being heavily delayed.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: “Fórsa continues to seek a reversion to the requirement that cars presented by a customer for a driving test require a valid NCT certificate, a requirement temporarily suspended due to delays caused by Covid.
“The RSA has continued to instruct driver testers to waive this requirement if a car presented for a test does not have a valid NCT certificate.
“The union has advised the RSA that the instruction has been issued due to serious health and safety concern for the union’s driver tester members”.
The trade union has reportedly been raising the NCT issue with the RSA since November 2022, and says “the matter remains unresolved despite a number of engagements over the four-month period”.
Fórsa also raised the matter at the State Agencies Oversight Body meeting held last week (Thursday 23rd March), and subsequently issued a written instruction to driver tester members to conduct driving tests only in vehicles carrying a valid NCT certificate.
In a letter issued to RSA management today, March 27, Fórsa assistant general secretary Derek Kelleher said: “This is a health and safety issue for our members, as the vehicle a customer presents for their test becomes the RSA staff member's workplace.
“The only way of ensuring that a vehicle is safe and roadworthy is when it has a valid NCT certificate. Without this, it is difficult to ascertain the health and safety risks to our members if they are forced to carry out their work in a vehicle that does not have the certificate.
“Ultimately, they do not know what risk this poses to their safety, and limiting tests to vehicles that have a valid NCT helps mitigate the risk.
“Instructing our members to only conduct a driving test in a vehicle with a valid NCT is a reasonably practicable way of increasing their safety at work. It aligns with the General Principles of Prevention within the Safety, Health, and Welfare at Work Act 2005,” he said.
Fórsa had advised driver tester members last November, on health and safety grounds, to adhere to the RSA protocol that all vehicles presented for a driving test must display a valid NCT certificate.
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