{"id":2014,"date":"2023-01-19T13:07:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/"},"modified":"2023-01-19T13:07:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:07:15","slug":"nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Confirmation that Road Safety Authority is engaged in legal process to impose penalties relating to NCT contract is welcome \u2013 but must be fully pursued<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Government must urgently address ongoing delays being experienced by motorists trying to access National Car Testing (NCT) centres and apply appropriate penalties on operator Applus+ for any breaches of its contract, according to Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn recent years, motorists have experienced unacceptably long delays when trying to book a test in their preferred centre \u2013 often up to several months at some locations \u2013 with factors such as staff shortages and Covid-19 being blamed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;According to the NCT\u2019s website, none of the centres around the country can offer appointments within the 28-day period, with Leinster and Dublin seeing the longest waiting times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite the NCT\u2019s customer charter promising a free test if no appointment is available within a 28-day period, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has confirmed that no customer was offered this concession last year. Will eligible drivers now be entitled to a refund and, if so, will Applus+ be held liable for these payments under the terms of their contract?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is also worth noting that the NCT contract was rolled over for a further 10 years in 2020. We need to know if key performance indicators were met by the company before the contact was renewed by the RSA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the core of this issue is vehicle safety and compliance with road traffic legislation. It continues to be an offence to drive a car without a current NCT certificate under the Road Traffic Act 1961, with motorists at risk of five penalty points on their licence, a fine of up to \u20ac2,500 or three months in prison.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we are advised that insurance companies are taking a pragmatic and understanding approach to the issue of backlogs at testing centres, drivers remain concerned they may not be covered in the event of an accident for not having a valid NCT certificate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe high demand for tests demonstrates that motorists want to be compliant, but the system is not allowing them to be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinister of State Jack Chambers confirmed to me in the D\u00e1il today that the RSA is engaged in a legal process to impose penalties on Applus+ for not providing services to the State, as contracted. This approach must be fully pursued by the Government to restore public confidence in the NCT system and ensure there is full accountability for the sub-par levels of service currently being offered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>January 19, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Confirmation that Road Safety Authority is engaged in legal process to impose penalties relating to NCT contract is welcome \u2013 but must be fully pursued The Government must urgently address ongoing delays being experienced by motorists trying to access National Car Testing (NCT) centres and apply appropriate penalties on operator Applus+ for any breaches of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catherine-murphy","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Confirmation that Road Safety Authority is engaged in legal process to impose penalties relating to NCT contract is welcome \u2013 but must be fully pursued The Government must urgently address ongoing delays being experienced by motorists trying to access National Car Testing (NCT) centres and apply appropriate penalties on operator Applus+ for any breaches of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-19T13:07:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\"},\"headline\":\"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-19T13:07:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":426,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Catherine Murphy\",\"Press Release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/\",\"name\":\"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays - Social Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-19T13:07:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"name\":\"Social Democrats\",\"description\":\"Change Ireland for the better\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Social Democrats\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"width\":846,\"height\":358,\"caption\":\"The Social Democrats\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/socialdemocratsireland\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/SocDems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\",\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/ga\\\/author\\\/zoo-admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays - Social Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/","og_locale":"ga_IE","og_type":"article","og_title":"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays - Social Democrats","og_description":"Confirmation that Road Safety Authority is engaged in legal process to impose penalties relating to NCT contract is welcome \u2013 but must be fully pursued The Government must urgently address ongoing delays being experienced by motorists trying to access National Car Testing (NCT) centres and apply appropriate penalties on operator Applus+ for any breaches of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/","og_site_name":"Social Democrats","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","article_published_time":"2023-01-19T13:07:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ZOO Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SocDems","twitter_site":"@SocDems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ZOO Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/"},"author":{"name":"ZOO Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960"},"headline":"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays","datePublished":"2023-01-19T13:07:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/"},"wordCount":426,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg","articleSection":["Catherine Murphy","Press Release"],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/","name":"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays - Social Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg","datePublished":"2023-01-19T13:07:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ga-IE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-65-scaled-1.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/nct-operator-must-be-held-accountable-for-unacceptable-delays\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NCT operator must be held accountable for unacceptable delays"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","name":"Social Democrats","description":"Change Ireland for the better","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization","name":"The Social Democrats","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","width":846,"height":358,"caption":"The Social Democrats"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","https:\/\/x.com\/SocDems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960","name":"ZOO Admin","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/author\/zoo-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}