Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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214.To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to review the current situation that where a privately owned car is declared off the road for a period of time and at the end of this period it passes NCT certification, that the NCT certificate may only be valid for a short number of months instead of a full year (details supplied).[34286/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Under 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.

Under the Regulations, 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. Any NCT certificate issued for that vehicle is only ever valid up to the test due date that falls after that certificate was issued and does not automatically apply for 12 months, or 24 months as the case may be, from the date of testing.

This is a binding obligation under European law and the Department of Transport does not foresee these regulations being amended in the near future.

The Deputy may also be interested to learn that Government gave approval to the General Scheme of a National Vehicle and Driver File Bill in July. Among its provisions, this Bill aims to simplify the process of declaring a vehicle off the road and avoid repeat applications.