James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State. I believe this is his first appearance before us since his appointment. I wish him well. He was fantastic in his previous Department and I hope he brings the same level of enthusiasm and energy to the Department of Transport.

I have been raising a certain matter for some time. The NCT system is appalling. As displayed at this committee, there has been an utter mismanagement of the situation, which has led to waiting lists growing to just shy of 400,000 vehicles per annum. While I accept the Minister of State's comments about the average waiting times being in excess of 28 days, if he came to Youghal – we look forward to him coming down to Cork tomorrow – the earliest appointment he would get on the system would be some time in October or November. That is not good enough and I am concerned that not enough is being done to address it. In particular, centres in and around Cork city all seem to have waiting times of four months for online bookings. What is the Minister of State going to do to improve this situation? Will he haul the RSA into the Department to explain to it how uncomfortable he is with what is happening? Is there a way for Applus+'s contract with the State to be terminated, given that this is an unsustainable mess that needs to be dealt with efficiently and effectively? That is a fair comment to make - we have seen it here. As a new Minister of State, Deputy Chambers has a chance to do something about this situation, although it will take time. What is his feedback?