Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Rourke. Everyone has spoken, so I will come back in for a second round if that is okay. I believe all the others will do that as well. It is really just to touch on points that might not have been mentioned earlier. I had to go and vote in the Seanad, so if I speak about anything that was already covered, the witnesses might let me know.

There was a major issue with the national car test, NCT, but it is not anything like it was. We had a report from the RSA, about how the backlogs are more or less cleared and it is back to normal. However, there still seems to be a fairly significant cohort of drivers who just do not bother getting the NCT done at all. There is no real data because it rolls over every two years. It is not like people's vehicles have never been tested, that the RSA does not seem to have the figures or that we could not identify those serial offenders who are not getting an NCT. There was a time when people could not tax their car without the insurance details and NCT date. That was removed during the backlog or maybe even before that. At checkpoints, are gardaí stopping vehicles to check if their NCT is valid in way they would have been in the past?

We talked about vehicles being seized. If the only problem is an out-of-date NCT, is the car seized? If it is not being seized, what enforcement is there to make sure people actually submit their vehicles for the NCT? As has been stated, one of the seven priorities is safe vehicles. The NCT picks up on things like tyres. We know they sometimes pick up on things we find a little finicky. I was once failed because the Baile Átha Cliath sticker on my number plate had faded. I got a new sticker and I passed 20 minutes later, so it was fine. There are many good parts of the NCT in terms of road safety, however. If people never get an NCT done, there are potentially defects that could not only impact on their vehicle but other vehicles in the event of a collision. The question is about what we are doing in terms of tax and so on, but particularly the NCT.