MOTORS THE NCT DEBATE:The decision to award more penalty points for NCT offences than for speeding – besides being unfair and obsolete – has caused chaos, writes TIM O'BRIEN
MAY I have the temerity to suggest a penalty for errant cabinet ministers who rush to the media on a slack morning with a wizard idea, straight from the Department of Not-thought-through.com? Ministers who come out with such brilliant ideas as putting tens of thousands of provisional licence-holders off the road before they can get a driving test? Remember that one?
The penalty for such behaviour? Let them attempt to book an NCT test following Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey’s announcement of five penalty points for those not frightened enough by existing garda enforcement and €1,500 fines.
The prospect of Noel Dempsey hanging on to phones, redialling, his calls being dropped, visiting a crashed website and ultimately attempting to get a reply from the parent company’s phone number, before he is forced to use public transport, is one to savour.
From May 1st, drivers will be issued with five penalty points for driving faulty vehicles, driving vehicles without a certificate of road worthiness and for failing to have an up-to-date NCT certificate.
Motorists who fail to address defects identified by the NCT will receive three penalty points, while truck drivers who strike overhead bridges will also receive three points.
Let me declare a personal interest here. I have a car in need of a national car test (NCT) certificate. The NCT expired at the end of March. The trouble here is that I waited for a reminder letter. The trouble there is that letters are no longer mandatory. Oh yes, they are still sent out, but they have been running up to three weeks late.
A three-week delay when Dempsey announces a three-week lead-in time. To be followed by five penalty points to be added to the already existing offence of not having an NCT. As the system jams up and delays now extend to the end of May and into June, that is a lot of people off the road.
Dempsey said the new driver penalty points will act as a deterrent and make roads safer. Road safety is like mom and apple pie, or to borrow from recent debates, like a call to patriotic duty – nobody can in conscience speak against it.
But dare I ask why five penalty points for not having an NCT certificate within three weeks, when the greatest cause of death on the roads – speeding – attracts just two or four points? Five penalty points, when the penalty for driving while using a hand-held mobile phone is just two points. The penalty for not wearing a seat belt – a major cause of death and serious injury – is just one point.
Five penalty points for not having an NCT certificate when there is to be another offence of five penalty points for driving a dangerously defective vehicle.
Are there really that many gougers out there attempting to evade proper regulation, completely careless of the existing road safety legislation?
Acquiring the NCT certificate is not like abstaining from using a mobile phone, failing to use a seat belt or driving on the hard shoulder, all of which are behavioral actions which can – and should – be changed instantly.
Acquiring an NCT is dependent on getting an appointment for a test. I was lucky and got an appointment for April 27th and the kind lady said staff had been “told nothing about it”.
An acquaintance called a day later and got an appointment for the end of May. Now you have to wait until June.
Penalty points were first introduced under the Road Traffic Act in 2002. Initially the government outlined 69 offences as suitable for penalty points, but only 37, mostly related to driver behaviour, have been activated to date.
Suddenly the minister saw a need for five penalty points for the existing offence of not having an NCT. What had caused this sudden weekend burst of regulatory fervor? Did he think about the three weeks? Did he consider whether the system can handle the appointments process?
As subsequent events proved, the system had difficulty with the phone calls and the website crashed. The Road Safety Authority was taken unawares by the minister’s anouncement, the AA said it had caused widespread confusion.
At least there is one sector which will do well out of this. The motor industry was disappointed that the supplementary Budget failed to introduce a scrappage scheme. The scrappage scheme may have saved jobs in the industry but it would have sent large amounts of – largely borrowed – money abroad.
The penalty points issue will, however, see a rush of cars into garages for pre- or even post-NCT work. This will save jobs and keep the money spent in this county. But if this was to be a sop to the motor industry, it seems wasted. There is little gratitude among the trade for the move.
So why was it done? Why five penalty points and why such a tight deadline? Could it possibly be as silly as a Monday headline? Is there nothing going on anywhere else that requires Government attention?