Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for attending and congratulate him on his change of portfolio. I wish him well in his new posting. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating this opportunity on the Adjournment.

I understand the contract for the carrying out of the vehicle testing function will expire in 2009 and will be advertised for tender prior to that date. A mid-term review was scheduled for January 2006. Will the Minister of State clarify the position and advise when the details of that review will be made known and whether they will be placed in the public arena? Will the Minister of State outline the changes he intends to make to the existing terms of reference and guidelines, if any exist, by which future providers of the NCT service will have to abide? Can changes be introduced now on foot of the mid-term review? What is the view of the Minister of State and the Department of Transport on the service that has been offered by the current holders of the contract? Is the Minister of State aware that the existing operators of the NCT centres have imposed a target fail rate of 50% or more of the cars which are presented for the test? The target is even higher for older cars. Does the Minister of State consider that the operators' approach to their business is fair and acceptable? Should each vehicle that is presented for the test not be considered equally and fairly? Should a decision on whether to present an NCT certificate not be based on a car's overall roadworthiness? Is it not the case that car testers are under pressure to meet the target fail rates which are set by the company that employs them? Is it not likely that some cars which might otherwise pass the test are failed so that the imposed targets are met?

The Department of Transport indicated to a Sunday newspaper in July 2005 that it intended to investigate the case of a car that had been passed by an NCT centre before being failed by another centre. An independent test on the car in question, which was carried out by a Dublin dealership garage, found that the car was "in a highly dangerous condition." What does the Minister of State know about that high profile case? Is the Minister of State aware of the highly questionable dismissal by National Car Testing Service Limited of three people who were employed at a testing centre in Monaghan? Is he aware that a tester in Monaghan had deemed the car I have mentioned to be unroadworthy? Is he aware that the three people in question are viewed by everyone in their community as scrupulously honest? I understand that the fail percentage of the employee who failed the car in question was in the low 40s.

Is the Minister of State aware that the three men, two of whom have worked with the company for more than four years, were dismissed on the basis of a spurious claim of gross misconduct? It is alleged that one employee was signed off early one evening by another of the three men, who was the team leader. The employee who left early, who had a legitimate reason for doing so, performed a specific task on behalf of the company on the evening in question — he took a bank lodgment to the bank. Does the Minister of State share my concerns about these matters? Is he prepared to make appropriate inquiries? Will he undertake to return to me on these matters when he is in a position to do so?

I appreciate that the Minister of State's prepared response may not reflect on many of the points I have raised this evening, but I appeal to him to recognise the seriousness of these matters and to investigate the relevant issues accordingly. I thank him for his attention and look forward to receiving a fuller reply from him when he has had an opportunity to examine these matters in the coming weeks.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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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