Irish motorists are being advised to change the way they’re booking their NCT in order to dodge the current six-month backlog.
By booking online, many drivers are being placed at the back of a lengthy queue, leaving some without valid NCT for months on end.
According to Applus+, you’ll be able to get ahead of the queue if you ring instead of using the online booking service.
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As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, like many other businesses NCT centres are still working through a backlog.
The company which runs the NCT service revealed to the Irish Independent that they only post around one-third of the appointments online.
A spokesperson also said that motorists will benefit from calling by getting an appointment within a month instead of entering the lengthy online wait time.
She told the Independent: "Covid is still impacting us; there are staffing issues. If a motorist applies online and the earliest appointment is six months or so, please phone us.
"If people then ring us, we will get them a far earlier appointment, within a month.
"All centres have quite high demand at present, with Drogheda being the highest wait time and Limerick the shortest wait time."
Drivers are also reminded that the NCT must be conducted every year on vehicles that are over ten years old.
However, those who own cars, vans, and other vehicles that are four to nine years old will need to have them inspected every two years.
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