Irish Drivers Association – Giving Irish Drivers A Voice        Irish Drivers Association – Giving Irish Drivers A Voice

Letter to Members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee

Members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee

Ladies and Gentlemen, TD’s Senators and Members of the JOC, we wish to thank you for giving us this opportunity to present concerns from our members on various aspects of Transport. We are grateful and we thank you in advance for hearing us.

Issues that we wish to deal with at this meeting are the following:

1. NCT (National Car Test) which we enclose evidence of the disgraceful performance of this test and the unwarranted treatment of the Irish motorist in connection with same, and the failure of the mid-term review report and the refusal of Ministers to answer our letters and also the incompatibility of the NCT with the objectives of EU Directive 96/96.
2. Penalty Points, which is already covered by Irish Law, the punitive mentality of the Government in relation to penalty points and attempts to usurp the powers of the courts and deprive the citizen of access to challenge these ‘punitive’ measures and deprive the citizen of access to justice and further draconian measures by doubling or trebling penalty points if the ‘system’ is challenged.
3. Condition of the Roads, failure to spend the road tax on the roads, tolls, and the system of road tax, the exploring of the possibility of including road tax in the petrol. Many benefits would flow from this.

We have had thousands of complaints from people in connection with NCT, their staff attitude and behaviour, manifesting itself in rudeness, impoliteness, dismissiveness and inattention to citizens concerns. It has been pointed out to us in numerous circumstances concerning failure of their vehicles which has nothing to do with its safety or its roadworthiness. These would not have occurred had this NCT Company not been given a ‘monopoly’ control of this situation, by the Dept. of Transport. The citizen has been deprived of the benefits of Article II of Directive 96/96 by being denied the choice of having their vehicles tested in conjunction with the service of their vehicles at their local garage. This denial has contributed to the ‘monopoly’ situation which NCT have been afforded and are currently enjoying. The effect of this is that the NCT think they can do what they like and the citizen has little or no redress against them. This dictatorial style attitude from NCT is not acceptable to the Irish Motorist or this Association and this monopoly situation is being used to continually fraud the citizen to the point that it is gone ‘beyond a joke’ and is in our opinion a criminal offence and potentially an infringement of Article 82 of the Treaty of Rome. It is despicable to think that the citizen is to be penalised for not having an NCT certificate when NCT themselves appear to have criminal immunity. It is our belief that the effect of this behaviour is that the Government via the Department of Transport has indicated to SGS, a foreign company brought in by Price-WaterHouse Coopers  ‘ come in here to Ireland, and rip off the Irish citizen’. With respect, the Government has a duty to protect its citizens from any type of abuse, potentially or actually from being inflicted on the Irish Citizen. We observe, that notwithstanding the massive complaints from citizens, directly and through this association and documentary evidence through the media, radio programmes etc, the Government and the Dept. of Transport has stood idly by and done nothing to alleviate this abuse, corruption and fraud. PWC was also contracted to set up the mid-term review when they were directly involved in the setting up of NCT which in our opinion involves a conflict of interest.*

The continual high failure rate is attributable to such irrelevant and minor requirements as part of an approximately 400 item check criteria when Directive 96/96 requires only 2 items to be tested, namely brakes and emissions, relating to safety and the environment respectively. Notwithstanding that Article 5 allows Member States to ‘increase the number of items to be tested’, where did 398 other items come from and one would expect these items to be directly related to safety and the environment and not to issues unconnected with these matters.

The Directive refers to ‘tests’ being ‘inexpensive’. By contrast, the NCT have not made the test cost €49, but €49 + €27.50 retest when they are deliberately and with impunity failing citizens vehicles for one purpose and one purpose only, that is to ‘maximise profits’ whilst simultaneously engaging in a criminal activity of ‘frauding’ and making a fool of and at the expense of an already hard pressed, over burdened, over taxed Irish citizen in relation to motoring costs and maintenance costs.
2 year duration to be from the date of test and not the date of registration of the car. Too many complaints from citizens saying cert was given for only one year or 6 months. This is an example of abuse/exploitation of the system and the citizen. How can you backdate a cert with retrospective effect?

Infringement of constitutional rights to peaceful enjoyment of possessions. Freedom of movement = fundamental freedom under Article 39, Treaty of Rome.
Who decided what the number and criteria of the additional 398 items and on what grounds did they feel they were entitled to do so.

Which documents contains a list of all these additional items?

Has the DOT and/or NCT issued a copy of these requirements and/or Directive 96/96 or the Irish Implementing Regulations for this Directive been issued to the Irish Motorist? If not, Why Not?

Democracy. The wishes of the citizens are not being implemented because we are not being listened to!

We, as an Association are requesting  the JOC to consider the removal of NCT by not renewing their contract and giving the consumer a better choice by enabling major and local garages to be allowed to become designated vehicle testing centres as per Article II of Directive 96/96. We also consider that without these measures, the Directive is improperly implemented and if necessary we will consider taking this matter up with the European Parliament.

Yours Faithfully,

……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.