Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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195. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to reform the national car test; his plans to move away from a first date on which a vehicle is registered in the context of due test dates; and if he has engaged with insurance providers in the context of providing cover in the absence of a valid NCT certificate for the vehicle. [3885/23]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The operation of the National Car Testing Service is the statutory responsibility of the Road Safety Authority and I have therefore referred the Deputy's query to the Authority for direct reply. I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days.

I understand that the RSA has engaged with Insurance Ireland, which has indicated that its members will adopt a pragmatic approach, where cover will continue to be provided if vehicle owners provide evidence that they have attempted to secure a test appointment before the expiry of their roadworthiness certificatebut have been unable to because of the current backlog.

In respect of certificates, under the European Directive 2014/45/EU on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers, Ireland, like all other EU Member States, is obliged to adhere to the minimum specified intervals for carrying out periodic roadworthiness inspections on motor vehicles. This is given effect in Irish law by means of the Road Traffic (National Car Test) Regulations 2017 (S.I. No. 415/2017), as amended.

Regulation 3(2) of the 2017 Regulations provides that 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 certificate issued for that vehicle will be valid only to the test due date which falls after the certificate is issued. Award of a certificate does not legally entitle the vehicle owner to the subsequent 12 months.

EU Member States cannot unilaterally postpone the date that a test is due to match the date of testing and so extend the validity of certificates without a derogation from the EU Commission. The only occasion where such a derogation has been granted to EU States was under Regulation (EU) 2020/698 in direct response to the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, when test centres were closed to combat the spread of the virus. A permanent change to the date of testing was applied to certain vehicles in 2020 as a result of the suspension of testing under the Road Traffic (National Car Test) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Certificates for vehicles which have had the extension applied are also valid only to the next test due date.

Permitting the validity of NCT Certs to be extended without inspection would place the State in breach of our obligations under EU law and may negatively impact road safety should the vehicle in question be unsafe to drive. There are currently no plans to amend this legislation.