Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is not quite in a similar vein but the issues surrounding the national car test, NCT, need to be addressed by the Department of Transport. I ask the Leader to request the Minister for Transport to come to the House because of the inability of this House to put on a Commencement debate regarding NCTs. It is unbelievable that the Minister does not turn up to a Commencement debate in the Seanad because the NCTs are not his direct responsibility. We now have a scenario where the waiting lists in some centres are over six months. If one does get an appointment but is outside the booking period, one does not get an NCT certificate of 12 months' duration. One gets a certificate maybe six or seven months, and then back into the circle again. Then we are wondering why we have a backlog in the NCT centres. We have a Minister who will not come here to talk about the issue in Commencement debates. We need to do something drastic here. Either the Minister has responsibility for the NCT or he has no responsibility for anything at all. We need to have a debate with the Minister for Transport in this House, about the NCT centres and how they are managed. Is it appropriate that a client who cannot get a booking through no fault of his own, only gets a certificate for the period of time that is left? I was in contact this morning with a man in Skibbereen who got a certificate for seven months. He was six months waiting for the appointment. Through no fault of his own he only got a seven-month certificate. That is just not good and then we have a Minister who will not come to the House to discuss it. There should be accountability. I ask the Leader and the Cathaoirleach to use their powers to make sure that the Minister comes to this House to take responsibility for what is happening in the shambles of a service that is the NCT service.