New points cause severe NCT backlog

DELAYS IN getting an appointment for a National Car Test (NCT) are now stretching into June, leaving thousands of motorists facing either being put off the road or receiving fines of up to €1,500 and the imposition of five penalty points from May 1st.

A spokeswoman for SGS, which operates the NCT service, said it was receiving some 25,000 booking inquiries per day – five time the norm – and that the volume of calls had not decreased substantially over the past week.

The lengthening delays follow attempts by thousands of motorists to secure an NCT at the earliest possible date, following the announcement last week by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey that five penalty points will be applied, on court conviction, for drivers who do not have a valid NCT certificate.

From May 1st, drivers are to be issued with five penalty points for driving faulty vehicles, driving vehicles without a certificate of road worthiness and for failing to have an up-to-date NCT certificate.

Motorists who fail to address defects identified by the NCT will receive three penalty points, while truck drivers who strike overhead bridges will also receive three points.

But following the minister’s surprise announcement, the NCT website crashed and a notice explaining the ongoing malfunction was displayed instead of the webpage yesterday. Callers to the NCT call centre were experiencing lengthy delays and the email booking service was at least intermittently out of action.

The SGS spokeswoman said calls were still being answered but said the service had “overloaded because we were inundated with calls”. She said thousands of motorists appeared to have been affected since the announcement. She also confirmed the NCT appointments were now stretching into June.

The web announcement said the difficulties were “due to the recent announcement” which had resulted in “an unprecedented demand” for bookings.

A Fine Gael TD has accused Dempsey of “zero planning”. Jimmy Deenihan TD said: “Failure to plan for the most obvious result on the NCT penalty points has left thousands of drivers in the lurch and will not aid in the fight to save lives.” He called on the minister to ensure drivers who had appointments were given more time to complete the process.

Questions to the Department of Transport press office, posed on Friday last, were not answered by close of business yesterday.