Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Anecdotally, everybody could bear witness to the points Senator Brian Hayes made. There is not one of us who has not received a formal complaint from a driver or who has not met or does not know somebody who has been through the system.

Everything about the car testing arrangement is quantifiable, measurable and recordable. Every day people get houses, boats and aeroplanes surveyed. People survey them and do an audit of the defects, the things that need correction or of the difficulties. They sign their name at the bottom of the audit and, like an auditor writing off on company accounts, their reputation is based on those facts and they are subject to checks themselves. There is no reason the car testing system should be organised in a monolithic way, as at present. There is nothing particularly wrong with it but there is no reason for it.

I pass the car testing area off the Ballymun exit most mornings. The amendment to the motion states that car owners have ready access via a modern road network. That is cynical. I am going to cut it out as it is the best quote I have seen in an amendment for a long time. Whoever wrote it must have been having a joke and said he or she would drop the Minister in it. It is like a piece of script from "Scrap Saturday", that is, the modern road network which can take us up the M50 whistling away.

People who are properly qualified should be able to do these tests. I can go into hospital and undergo a CAT scan or get a stress test, which is ten times more complex than a car test, and get a complete read-out on everything that is being done. There is no reason motorists should have a choice of only three places in Dublin. They should be able to use their local garage.

It is not just a case of the local garage per se. It must involve somebody, such as a consulting engineer, who is qualified and is recognised as being able to survey a car and reach a conclusion. If a situation is reached, as in the case outlined by Senator Brian Hayes, where the tester says he or she cannot sign the test certificate because a wheel may be incorrectly sitting in its hub, the motorist may be asked to come back the next day with the mended part when the vehicle will then be approved. There is nothing wrong with that. It is as it should be.

Our objective as parliamentarians — I include the Minister of State in this — is to ensure that cars are safe on the road. I see no reason that this has to be done on any basis other than the House being assured that whoever signs off on a car is trustworthy, dependable and qualified. It is being said, in effect, that a garage is not going to sign off on its best customer. However, the test must be backed up with a paper printout of everything that is done. Every part of the process is recordable, such as emissions, where the lights are hitting off the wall and difficulties with tyres, for example, depth of thread. All this data is available and may be printed. It should be a requirement that the printout must accompany the certificate. There is no reason this could not be done. It would not have the effect or impact of people signing off incorrectly. Faulty items would have to be corrected before they were signed off, and this must be done, regardless of the relationship a customer might have with the garage.

The current situation may continue, but I do not see why it should be restricted to that. Take boats and aeroplanes as an example. Insurance companies will insist that there is a detailed surveyor's report accompanying a boat or plane when it is being insured. This report must cover particular parts, as required. It is the same as undergoing a stress test, CAT scan or various examinations that have to do with parts of the body. All the findings are available, whether they are right or wrong and a printout is made available.

The car test is not a judgment call, it is a measure. It is not, for example, somebody expressing an opinion on whether a wall will last 30 years as there is a problem with the way the binding was done at the top. In this situation everything is measurable and therefore recordable. If it is recordable it cannot be falsified. That is the reality and it is what we should be looking at. We should seek to simplify, not eliminate. There are easier ways to do this so that people would not have to travel over half the county or city or down the M50 through that fantastic network of roads. I ask the Minister of State to consider that.

I want to place on the record one more time what I believe to be the funniest line we have heard here since the start of the new session a few weeks ago. I would like every driver in Dublin to listen to it. Somebody is having a go at the Minister of State and he should put the boot in when he returns to his office. According to the Government we are supposed to acknowledge, and I quote: "that Dublin test centres are strategically located so that car owners have ready access via a modern road network to high volume purpose-built facilities...". That is great. I thank the Minister of State.