Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for raising this matter. It is not correct that the contract for the operation of the national car testing service will expire soon. The ten-year contract that was awarded to National Car Testing Service Limited will run for a further four years until the end of 2009, as the Deputy said. I will deal with the mid-term review that was also mentioned by the Deputy. He may mistakenly assume that the recently completed review of the operation of the car-testing contract is the forerunner to the making of totally new arrangements for the car testing function. The contract with NCTS provides for a mid-term review by the Minister after the mid-point of the contract. Contrary to some public expectations, the question of whether to renew or extend the contract until the end of 2009 did not arise as an issue in the mid-term review.

The purpose of the review was to examine in detail the performance of NCTS and to assess a range of strategic issues such as the quality of the service provided for car owners, the content of the test, the location and number of test centres and the responses to a public consultation process on the review. The review, which began in April 2005, was carried out by the Department of Transport in conjunction with the supervision services contractor for the car testing contract.

The supervision services contractor, which is a consortium consisting of PricewaterhouseCoopers and AA Ireland, provides supervisory support to the Department in monitoring and supervising NCTS to ensure it meets its contractual obligations on an ongoing basis. The contract requires NCTS to meet a range of performance standards for the service, which the company has consistently met over the duration of the contract to date.

The report on the mid-term review, which was received by the Department from PricewaterhouseCoopers at the end of October 2005, contains a wide range of recommendations covering areas such as test content, test integrity, technical standards, customer service and data management. Any changes in the national car test or the way it is carried out or administered have to be agreed with NCTS in accordance with the change control procedures which govern any changes to the contract between the Minister and the company. I understand that agreement in principle has recently been achieved in the negotiations between the Department and NCTS on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the mid-term report. I expect to be in a position to make an early announcement about the implementation of the changes to the national car test and to publish the full report of the review at the same time.

Deputy Ó Caoláin chose to raise, in the context of this more general Adjournment debate, the specific case of a number of people in Monaghan who have been dismissed from their employment. I will make inquiries about the matter and communicate my findings directly to the Deputy

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