Compulsory car-testing, required by an EU directive to start in Ireland next year, will create at least 250 jobs, according to Mr Alan Nolan, acting chief executive of Dacra Eireann at the opening of the company's head office and training centre in Dublin yesterday.
Dekra Eireann is a joint venture between Dekra, Europe's largest vehicle-testing company, and the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. The new company has tendered for the Government contract to operate a national network, which will have about 70 test centres.
Under the Department of the Environment proposals, testing of almost 60 safety-related items would apply to 750,000 cars over four years old. In the first year, only cars eight years old or more will be tested. Full testing for all cars over four years should begin the following year. The test has to be repeated every two years.
Practical demonstrations of the tests were given yesterday to motor industry representatives at Dacra Eireann's premises. They are highly computerised, and with the results being fed into a central computer at the company's headquarters, it was emphasised that operatives could not cheat. In other European countries, the failure rate has been up to 20 per cent of cars tested.
Mr Nolan said yesterday that the test centres would be separate from any commercial motor activity and that no sales, service or repair of vehicles would be undertaken.