Whatever happened to no NCT, no tax?

OPINION NATIONAL CAR TEST:ELEVEN YEARS ago, the government of the time hailed the arrival of National Car Testing as "an important strand" in its road safety strategy. After years of ignoring the annual suffering and cost incurred as a result of crashes involving cars that should never have been left on the road, the decision marked a welcome effort to improve road safety for everyone.

The system was straightforward. Four years after being initially licensed, every car in the State was required to undergo a series of tests to ensure it was roadworthy and safe. A similar test is required every two years subsequently. More recently, it has been decided that cars that have been 10 years on the road should be tested each year.

All very commendable. A network of test centres has been established around the State and the charge has risen only slightly over the past decade, from £35 (€44.40) to €50.

It was hardly before time. Ireland was one of the last country in western Europe to introduce mandatory safety testing for cars: our nearest neighbours have had the MoT test for years. And at the time the average age of cars on the road in Ireland was higher than in most corresponding jurisdictions.

Getting people to accept greater regulation, especially something that is going to cost them money, is never easy, and the Government decided at the outset to link the ability to tax a vehicle after presenting a valid NCT certificate where required.

No NCT, no tax and therefore no right to be on a public road.

The policy proved effective, although it remains a moot point how much of the improvement in the state of cars on Irish roads was down to increased affluence and a series of scrappage schemes that encouraged people to take older vehicles off the road.

Somewhere along the line, though, that link between taxation and roadworthiness was broken. In classic Irish fashion, it appears it was done as a short-term measure to avert a crisis of untaxed motorists during a strike by NCT staff in 2001 and never properly restored thereafter.

Having checked back through media archives, I cannot find a single article formally breaking the news or explaining this U-turn in policy. Up to the time of writing, no one in the Department of Transport was able to explain the timing or the reason.

The importance of having such a regulatory check was illustrated again in May 2009 when then Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey finally activated measures in the 2007 Road Traffic Act introducing penalty points for failure to display a valid NCT certificate.

In this State, legislation is one thing, enforcement is another. In 2009, only 120 people received penalty points for the offence. Stripping out those whose details don’t match licences – including cars registered in foreign countries – the number penalised for the offence was lower than the number receiving points for driving the wrong way on a motorway. Things have improved since that first year, but not by much.

Last week, I got my car tested, having suddenly realised I was well out of time. Maybe my failure would have been picked up by a garda at a road checkpoint but, although I live in Dublin and travel the main arteries regularly, I have not encountered a single roadside checkpoint this year.

The bottom line is that whatever about safe but forgetful motorists, owners of rogue and unsafe vehicles – the target of what is now an industry worth €40 million plus a year, yielding profits of €8.7 million in 2009 – know they are effectively safe from any censure unless and until they do damage to themselves or someone else. The test is now a tax on the compliant. So much for road-safety policy.

‘Checks and balances’ to prevent further fraud at NCT centres

Applus, which operates the National Car Test, has dismissed three more staff, bringing to six the number sacked following allegations that unroadworthy cars were passed in return for bribes. A company spokeswoman said the staff had been dismissed for a “breach of test integrity” identified following a Prime Time programme in May.

The programme contained allegations of vehicles fraudulently passing an NCT, including an example of two taxis that failed a test before passing a retest, allegedly after a bribe was paid. The spokeswoman said Applus had responded to the issue by putting in place an anti-fraud management plan.

This includes an identity check for someone presenting a vehicle for a test and the introduction of a whistleblower telephone line and e-mail system for staff and members of the public.

She declined to say how many staff had been suspended to date as part of its investigation. At least seven members of staff – three of whom were later dismissed – were suspended in days immediately following the programme.

Applus has provided a report into the allegations to the senior detective leading the Garda inquiry, which is ongoing. As part of the investigation Applus interviewed every member of staff. It also reviewed previous tests to determine whether unroadworthy cars were passed.

A spokesman for the Road Safety Authority, which awarded the 10-year contract for the car test to Applus in January last year, said the “RSA is satisfied that additional checks and balances have been put in place by the contractor to prevent such fraudulent activity happening again”.

Three of the suspended staff were based at the Fonthill test centre in Dublin, one at Kells, Co Meath, and one at Northpoint in Dublin. It is not clear at which centres the vehicle testers Applus dismissed were based.

Minister of State for Transport Alan Kelly will publish the findings of a review into the taxi industry to address what he said were “appalling practices” in some areas.

The review has considered increased Garda enforcement of regulations relating to taxi drivers and the provision of new powers to assist gardaí monitor the sector.

At least seven members of staff were suspended following the ‘Prime Time’ programme

DAVID LABANYI