Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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162.To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the measures being taken to reduce the delays in NCT appointments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30997/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the operation of the National Car Testing (NCT) Service is the statutory responsibility of the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

There has been considerable progress addressing the long-term staffing issues behind the NCT backlogs. Measures put in place include the temporary secondment of testers in 2022, increased staff overtime and extensive recruitment of new vehicle inspectors throughout 2023, leading to the highest number of testers ever employed at any one time in the service. Testers are being assigned to the test centres with the highest delays.

As a result of these measures, the service was returned to its service level agreement (SLA) waiting period of 12 days in November 2023. However, the annual increase in vehicles due for NCT in Q1 and Q2 2024, reflecting consumer trends to purchase vehicles at the beginning of the calendar year (as test dates are based on the anniversary of registration), means that the average waiting time for appointments will fluctuate from the SLA in this period.

The current national average waiting time is just over 17 days, but is expected to drop again in the coming weeks and average 12 days for the third quarter.