A Dublin TD says NCTs for new cars should be pushed back from when they are four-years-old to six to alleviate the massive backlog.
Dublin South-West Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy believes the measure could free up up to 200,000 NCT appointments countrywide. People have reported waiting times of over five months for an NCT appointment in most places in Ireland, with centres in Dublin and the surrounding counties facing waits of up to seven months.
Deputy Brophy said: “This would remove cars due their first test in 2023 and those due their first test in 2024 out of the testing system, allowing the NCT to concentrate on older vehicles. At the same time the NCT operator must solve the problems of providing the service efficiently or else their contract should be terminated.
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“This solution could be implemented for cars due for their first time test this year and next year and would give NCT time and space to deliver on their contractual agreements. This should be done, not to facilitate the NCT operator, but to facilitate motorists who are finding it almost impossible to successfully book an appointment with the NCT currently.
“There were 117,000 cars sold in the Republic of Ireland in 2019 and 88,000 sold in 2020. Each one of these cars is now due its NCT in 2023 and 2024. Removing these would free up over 200,000 appointments, significantly impacting on waiting times, which now stand at over 20 weeks.
“These long waiting times present a real danger to motorists and are a source of huge frustration. A common sense approach is what’s required now to consider how this backlog can be shifted to make tests available to those who need them most.”
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