MOTORISTS WAITING to hear from the NCTS to be told when their car is due for its National Car Test, should stop and check it out for themselves because they're probably not going to hear anything. And waiting could be costly.
Owners run the risk of being fined up to €1,500 or even having their car impounded if they fail to have their car tested on time.
The Garda routinely check for valid NCT certificates along with insurance and tax, and will issue summonses to motorists who have no reasonable excuse for not displaying a valid NCT disc when it is required.
Despite assurances on the NCTS website that the organisation will "contact owners of eligible motor vehicles (based on official vehicle registration records) in advance of the anniversary date of first registration of your car" a spokeswoman confirmed to The Irish Times that this is not actually the case.
"We do not contact everyone," she said. "We try to contact as many people as we can, but the onus is on the owner of the car to be aware of when the test is due and to have their car tested.
"It is a legal requirement and the majority of people will know when their car is due for testing."
She pointed out that the Motor Tax renewal notice does include a reminder of the test falling due, but this is not much help to a person who taxes their car in January with the NCT falling due two months later.
They could find themselves in the position of driving around illegally for the next nine months before their next tax renewal notice arrives.Conor Faughnan of the AA believes that this is an issue which needs to be dealt with. "It is a significant issue," he says. "From a customer service point of view it is good to get a letter, and the service is that bit diminished by the NCTS not sending letters to everyone any more. We are now eight years into the NCT regime, and people are accustomed to getting reminder letters and I would hope that they will reinstate the practice of sending out letters to everyone."
He also sees a potential road safety issue in that it is no longer necessary to have a NCT certificate to tax a car. When the NCT was first introduced it was the case that it was necessary to have a certificate for a car of more than four years of age in order to tax it.
This was dropped in 2002, following an industrial relations problem in NCTS which caused significant delays in testing. These delays were preventing people from taxing their cars and the requirement was dropped and has never subsequently been restored.
"It is very disappointing that the linkage between the NCT and Motor Taxation has not been restored," Faughnan continues. "We do not want to allow a culture to develop where the NCT is ignored. We want the system to be smooth running, self-monitoring and self-policing as far as is possible."
However, good news is on the way, according to Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett. "There is work under way at present on a new IT system to link the national driver file in Shannon with the NCTS and this should be fully operational at the end of the summer," he told The Irish Times. "This will enable the NCTS to send out reminders to all car owners when their test is due."
While he believes compliance rates with the NCT regime to be high, he does believe that the link with the motor tax system should be restored: "The standard of vehicles on our roads is of importance to us, and we would like to see the restoration of the link between the NCT and motor taxation for that reason."