Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was the point Senator Landy touched on. Those changes are being made to emphasise to people that it is fundamentally their responsibility to make sure their cars are roadworthy. They need to take responsibility for that and to contact the NCT centres at the right time to ensure their vehicle can be checked. That being said, the most recent figures we have show very clearly that, on average, customers are getting their test appointments within three weeks with the vast majority - over 90% - getting their test within four weeks. The point that still stands in respect of people getting their tests is that if it does not appear that a test is available from looking at the website, the key thing to do is to contact the NCT over the phone and request the test inside the times they need. My experience is that the vast majority of people who do that get appointments that meet their needs.

I differ from Senator Norris's view that Dublin and the city manager are not car-friendly. I believe the city council does an awful lot of work to try and respect the needs of different road users. Occasionally, it needs to make changes that cause people difficulties for short periods of time but the reason this is done is to deal with matters of road safety and to find measures to allow our vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians to get around the city in a safe and more efficient manner.

I note some of the points that Senator Quinn made and I will have a look at the transcript after this debate to see some of the examples he gave because I found some of the examples regarding how the Nordic region conducts tests interesting. It is certainly something I will pass on to the RSA to see if we can learn anything from how it is conducted elsewhere and to integrate it into our system. I genuinely believe that while there have been difficulties relating to changes that have been made and delays some people have faced at times, the services we have in place play a vital role in making sure that more and more vehicles are roadworthy and, therefore, contribute to our roads being safer.

A point the Senator touched on that was also touched on more explicitly by Senator O'Sullivan relates to some of the feelings people had regarding the period when I introduced this change to the law. A point that is worth emphasising is that at the time, we did not introduce new or heavier sanctions relating to it. What we did was change the nature of penalty points that could be incurred by somebody driving without an NCT certificate. It was always illegal not to have an NCT certificate. When I introduced the new road safety legislation, we changed it to enable somebody to get three points without going to court. One of the things that happened as a result of that change, which may have prompted the correspondence that the Senator and I and others received, is that the advertising campaign relating to that and the profile the change garnered made many people feel as if a new offence had been brought in. The offence had already been there. It is just that the consequences that somebody faced due to not having an NCT certificate changed.

This leads on to a point touched on by Senator Landy, namely, the nature of discretion in respect of this matter. We track through the PULSE system and information the Garda makes available to us the number of different road traffic offences that are committed, their nature, their location, how they occur and so on. I do not have information available to me regarding the number of times discretion was used by gardaí. As the Senator knows, this is very much a matter for An Garda Síochána and individual gardaí. I would never look to influence that or to interfere with it in any way. I believe from individual feedback we received across the period during which this new regime was being put in place that efforts were made to recognise difficulties that motorists would have had. Common sense was used so that if someone had an appointment approaching, this was recognised by gardaí when they were deciding what to do. I do not have individual statistics relating to that. My own experience is that gardaí did their best during this period in respect of the roll out of the different penalty point sanctions.

Senator Landy raised the issue of delays people faced on a number of occasions. This is precisely the reason the new changes I referred to have been introduced. I hope that the 24-hour centres that have been introduced will play a role in making it easier for car users to get in and out. I know that some people who own or use cars may be able to use the NCT centre at night, which may alleviate the pressure on what would otherwise be busy parts of the day. I will certainly look at the introduction of these changes to see what effect they have and to see whether they could be amplified during the year. The RSA will look at whether it will be possible to put in place measures to bring people who would have their NCT tests in the first half of next year into what would otherwise be a busy period so that the peak we are dealing with at the moment might not be as sharp as it has been in other years.

Senators Ó Clochartaigh and Norris made the point about the age limit requirement for taxis. I know taxi drivers have had difficulties with this change but I believe it is a policy that should be supported. I strongly believe it offers people who visit our country and regular taxi users a better quality of car in the long run. While I accept that it did cause difficulties during the introduction period, I strongly believe that in the long run, it will be in the best interests of the taxi industry and people who depend on taxis.

I take a very different view to that of Senator Ó Clochartaigh regarding the way in which the NCT centres are run. I am confident that the opportunity for profit that is there for people who win a tendering process in an honest and effective manner will in no way impede the operation and roll-out of tests across our country. I return to a point I made in response to Senator O'Sullivan, namely, the fact that there are tests in place. We need to make sure that these tests are carried out in a competent and honest manner, and there are robust checks in regard to this. That is a philosophical point of difference between us. I do not believe a profit motive will automatically encourage people to act in a way that might make them in breach of the contract they have won. I am absolutely certain that the RSA runs this in a robust manner.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh made the point that he wants to see an environment created in which investment will come into the country and more business will be created. He also alleged that the fact that the company that has won a contract is an international business might mean it would not operate the contract in the way we want. I put it to him that there is an absolute contradiction between those two points.