A long-standing practice whereby owners or operators of commercial vehicles can have them tested in a centre in which they have a personal interest should be halted, a Government-funded review of the testing regime has recommended.
The report, published yesterday by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), also underlines the need for an overhaul of the system for testing commercial vehicles such as heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), buses and ambulances.
It says this should include more random roadside inspections, and notes that a recent British survey of commercial vehicles found a "disproportionate" number of failures by vehicles from Ireland.
The report also highlights a lack of consistency among test centres, and says fixed-term licences for authorised test centres should be introduced.
Similarly, it recommends frequent checks on operator premises, and calls for an investigation into the introduction of vehicle number-plate recognition systems to identify non-compliant vehicles.
In a significant development it also recommends that the RSA assume overall responsibility from individual local authorities for the management and operation of the commercial vehicle-testing system.
It notes that local authorities rarely delist authorised testing centres despite having such a sanction available.
The report, compiled by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, makes 25 recommendations for improving testing and enforcement regimes. All of the proposals have been approved by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.
Among concerns highlighted in the report is the current situation whereby owners can have their vehicles tested in their own workshops. This can lead to a possible conflict of interest, meaning they pass vehicles which should have failed.
Similarly, it notes concerns about authorised test centres which are associated with dealerships or which sell second-hand vehicles.
"It is clear that the price of a commercial vehicle is significantly increased if it is sold with a recently-issued Certificate of Roadworthiness ," the report states. "It was alleged that some unscrupulous test centres are prepared to issue pass certificate for vehicles which have not been inspected."
Noel Brett, RSA chief executive, said the review was commissioned partly as a response to disquiet about high-profile collisions involving commercial vehicles.
He said statistics show that passengers in smaller vehicles tend to suffer disproportionately when they collide with commercial vehicles.
"These are the vehicles we share the road with. In 2006, 19 per cent of fatal collisions involved a commercial vehicle. As the report states, a programme of change must be implemented urgently."
Compulsory roadworthiness testing currently applies to an estimated 230,000 commercial vehicles on Irish roads.