Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. I am seeking to obtain an update on the investigation into fraud at National Car Test, NCT, centres and to discover what the Department has done to ensure that no car passes the NCT fraudulently. In recent days I was approached by a concerned individual who bought a car only last week which had passed its NCT one or two weeks prior to that. When he brought the car home, he took it to his local mechanic who telephoned him a couple of days later and stated that there was no way it could have passed the NCT because several major parts needed to be replaced. How could a car pass the NCT when that is the case?

It is obvious that an endemic problem remains in respect of car testing. The individuals at NCT centres who are culpable in the context of passing cars which should not be passed are causing real danger by allowing potentially defective vehicles back onto our roads. People are driving their families on roads on which they may encounter unsafe cars. We see road safety advertisements every day about dangerous driving and showing us the human tragedies of car accidents. What about dangerous cars? This is an important issue. Why must we wait for a "Prime Time Investigates" special? What happens when the sensationalism and the spotlight dies down after the "Prime Time Investigates" programme? It seems that the heat dies down but the fraud goes on. What is happening to ensure our national car testing service is being properly delivered? What monitoring takes place to ensure our cars are being properly tested so that people are not hoodwinked? What happens to cars that have been passed fraudulently? Two months since the "Prime Time Investigates" programme was broadcast, this fraud is still going on. I know this from the concerned person who came to me. On the "Prime Time Investigates" programme, the person interviewed highlighted the point that fraud was going on not just in the centres identified in the programme but nationwide.

Are Applus+ Car Testing Service Limited, the company that runs the national car testing service, and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport reliant on programmes like "Prime Time Investigates" and people coming forward or are they trying to get to the core of these issues? Is it an active or passive investigation? I do not want to be dependent on waiting for someone to come forward. A person may be fearful for his or her job and the ramifications of coming forward. At the time of the programme, Applus+ Car Testing Service Limited said it would vigorously investigate the allegations of fraud at its centres and that it had reported the matter to the Garda Síochána. Applus+ Car Testing Service Limited asked the State broadcaster to provide details of the allegations. In a statement released at the time, Applus+ Car Testing Service Limited said the NCT is operated to the highest international standards and takes the issue of vehicle safety and fraud very seriously. The company is supposed to be reviewing the tests to determine whether unroadworthy cars were passed. If cars were passing this test up to two weeks ago when they should not have been, what is going wrong?

There are wide-ranging and detailed concerns about the national car test and anecdotal evidence about the lack of consistency across the NCT centres. This leads to people questioning the validity of NCT centres. It will not help us to promote road safety. We need the public to believe in the quality of the work done by the NCT. Until this issue is resolved, that cannot happen. I ask the Minister of State to address these concerns.