Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I agree with my colleague, Deputy Shortall. I am sure my office is no different to that of anybody else in terms of the number of complaints it receives about the national car test, particularly about the variation between centres. There is very high failure rate although the average age of cars is extremely low and falling all the time.

The issue of non-nationals having accidents while driving cars registered abroad has come to national prominence in recent weeks. The Garda highlighted that there is no test for these cars to determine their quality and no certification as to whether they passed a road-worthiness test in their country of origin. I understand the authorities in Northern Ireland have dealt with this problem by introducing the equivalent of an national car test for cars entering that jurisdiction from other countries. Has the Minister made any inquiries into this? Is it possible for us to introduce a similar system to deal with the many cars coming into the State from abroad?

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