Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are 20 vehicle inspectors from the Spanish operation and 110 vehicle inspectors, including 44 testers, were recruited from the Philippines. There has also been a significant increase in staff overtime, allowing for 12 tests per tester per day. The RSA has agreed to the Applus proposal to recruit additional inspection personnel at Quality and Qualification Ireland, QQI, level 5 to assist vehicle inspectors with the automated machine-led element. This stems from a November 2022 Labour Court recommendation for a 12-month pilot for Dublin test centres, indicating that no more than 10% of the workforce should be made up of inspection support personnel. All vehicle inspectors are qualified mechanics who will retain responsibility for conducting the NCT tests and for signing off on the issuing of the certificate. The Department has received assurances from the RSA that the appointment of inspection support personnel will not result in the loss of any existing jobs and that there will be no reduction in the quality of tests being carried out at NCT centres.

Any new employees will supplement the existing staff to increase testing capacity with the objective to increase the overall number of testing staff to meet the high demand.

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