Thousands of Irish motorists are driving illegally because they haven't had their car tested by the NCTS. By law, every car more than four years old must be tested and it is illegal to drive it without a roadworthiness certificate.
In total, some 83,574 cars registered in 2002 had been tested up until August this year. Given that the total number of new car registrations for the first eight months of 2002 was 140,937 this means that up to 57,000 people may be driving illegally at present. "We can't force people to come in for a test. We understand that not having a certificate will soon become a penalty points offence and that should help matters in this regard," a spokeswoman said.
In some cases owners of 2002 cars may not realise their car is due for testing despite the fact that the NCTS claims on their website to undertake to notify every owner of the due date for their test.
Confusingly, a telephone service provided by the company advised two Irish Times reporters that vehicle owners were no longer informed in advance despite what it says on the website.
According to an NCTS spokeswoman this information was incorrect and owners are notified in the majority of cases but that "in a small number of cases" notification letters may not be sent out because of faulty information received from the National Vehicle Registration Office in Shannon. "We receive a file from Shannon informing us of the vehicles due to be tested and we send out letters offering a provisional appointment to the owners of those vehicles", she said.
"However, in cases where the tax on the car is more than three months out of date we do not send a letter. In other cases people may have changed address and not informed the Vehicle Registration Office."
"We are finding that many people are coming in with their cars in advance of the due date to have them tested and this means that they won't be sent a letter", the spokesman explained.
She denied reports of backlogs causing hold-ups in testing. "We aim to offer everyone an appointment within 21 days, at present the average waiting time is 12 days and there is no backlog", said the spokesperson.