Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I offer the Minister of State my best wishes. I specifically ask him to do one thing. Will he ask the RSA if it assesses the pass-fail rates in test centres and of testers? I am talking about an issue that is raised in my office all the time, including last week and the week before - 30 or 40 times - whereby one tester has a massive fail rate. How is that possible? I have tried to raise the matter but have got nowhere. I have heard of numerous people whose cars failed the test three times. When they drove up the road to Birr, their vehicles passed the test. An 18-year-old woman who paid €85 ended up crying because she could not even get the test carried out because the tester to whom I refer, who often does not allow people to do the test on the basis of the state of the vehicle, said the brake light was a slightly faded because of wattage when the indicator was on. This person worked nine and a half hours to earn the money to be able to have a test for which she paid €85 carried out but it did not proceed. People from Nenagh and surrounding areas continually contact my office asking why one tester fails way more vehicles than anyone else. Will the Minister of State ask the RSA to provide pass-fail rates by test centre and anonymised pass fail-rates by tester in order that it can identify anomalies and look into them? Obviously, there is an issue because when this person was off work, the pass rates amazingly came up to the national average.

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