Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 52: To ask the Minister for Transport if he could clarify that under the terms of the tender, the NCT is to operate under accreditation by the Irish National Accreditation Board within four years of the commencement of operation; and if so, the reason it is not currently the case. [36059/05]

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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It was provided for in the car testing tender documents that the company selected to operate car testing would be required to achieve and maintain accreditation to EN 45004 standard. At the time of the preparation of the contract documents, work was proceeding on the development of parameters specific to vehicle testing for inclusion in EN 45004 standard and it was considered that it would be an appropriate standard for the service. However, by the time car testing came into force in Ireland, the EN 45004 standard had not evolved to specifically cater for vehicle testing. It was, therefore, decided that alternative quality assurance arrangements would apply for the service to be operated by the Department's supervision service contractor for NCTS. The provisions of standard EN45004 will be taken into consideration when the contract comes up for renewal.