Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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198. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to make provision for a pause on the requirement to maintain an NCT certificate valid in instances in which a vehicle has been declared as being off the road. [52695/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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All Member States of the European Union are required by law to carry out a periodic roadworthiness inspections on motor vehicles at regular intervals throughout the vehicle's lifecycle.

The applicable dates for periodic testing is provided for by national legislation. Under Regulation 3(2) of the Road Traffic (National Car Test) Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 415/2017), the initial test due date for a vehicle is determined using the date of registration of that vehicle and subsequent test due dates fall on anniversaries of that date. Accordingly, all test due dates are predetermined based on the date of registration of a vehicle and any NCT certificate issued in respect of a vehicle is only valid up to the test due date that falls after that certificate was issued.

At such time of the expiry of the declaration, a valid NCT is required if it is intended that the vehicle be used on public roads. It may be useful to note that a vehicle may be used during the period of a non-use declaration in two cases:

- to bring it to and from a test centre for the test; or

- to bring it for repair after a re-test, or back to where you are keeping it while it is off the road after the repairs. This option may only be used where an appointment has already been made for a re-test.

There are currently no plans to make provisions for changing the applicable dates for roadworthiness test, even in the case of vehicles declared temporarily off-the-road.