Mr. Brendan Walsh:

I will respond. It is a good question. Having come from that world a long time ago, I can tell the committee that in our commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing, CVRT, service which used to be the Department of the Environment testing structure, we have 555 mechanics. That is almost the same number as the National Car Testing Service, but they only test approximately 500,000 vehicles a year. However, they carry out 15 different types of test. The test is much longer and more arduous. It is an annual test for every vehicle. We did look at that possibility. To be honest, one of the first questions I asked when I came on board was whether there was a way to utilise the CVRT service. However, the reality is that they are two completely different systems. Applus operates one system for testing and then we have the CVRT structure. They are separate systems. One system is run and controlled directly by the RSA, the other is an Applus system, which it operates. The two systems cannot link with each other. In addition, the efficiencies relating to the NCT whereby a tester can deliver 17 or 18 tests a day would not be achievable in the CVRT network. We looked at it, but it is not physically possible.