Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the concerns about the reliability of NCT testing due to the considerable pressure put on inspectors to carry out examinations of vehicles in a shorter time than is possible under normal circumstances; and the measures he intends to take to ensure that all procedures required for proper testing of vehicles are abided by. [45901/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006 (Conferral of Functions) Order 2006 (S.I. No. 477 of 2006) the Road Safety Authority has responsibility for the delivery of the National Car Test. In exercising its supervisory role in monitoring the delivery of the NCT, the Authority appointed Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Automobile Association to monitor the ongoing compliance of Applus+ in regard to its performance and acceptable standards contained in the Project Agreement. Standards measured include premises, test equipment, staff, test arrangements, facilities management, financial management, information technology infrastructure and operations, customer service and provision of public information. In addition to this, there is regular ongoing contact between the RSA and my Department on matters pertaining to the NCT.

While it is neither practical nor affordable to observe every one of the 1.4 million tests and re-tests conducted each year across Ireland’s network of 47 test centres, I understand that the oversight arrangements of the RSA seek to verify independently the quality and integrity of NCT testing. The supervisory mechanisms employed by the RSA use a range of tools (inspections, data trend analysis, check-tests and consistency tests amongst them) to build a statistical and evidential foundation of data that provides confidence of adherence to standards and performance requirements.  These supervisory mechanisms are continually subject to review and improvement, involving not only the introduction of new types and volumes of inspections, but also analysis of new data sets and the introduction of new processes and technologies.

The need for consistently high vehicle testing standards is recognised, irrespective of the test centre at which any vehicle is tested, the vehicle inspector who tests it or the circumstances in which it is tested.   Since 2005 the average test duration has remained at about 20 minutes and independent reviews have confirmed that the test result is correct in more than 99% of cases.