NCT penalty points unclear

FURTHER DÁIL questions are to be raised this week in relation to the roll-out of additional penalty points, amid continuing delays and confusion over whether motorists who do not have a valid National Car Test (NCT) certificate from this Friday will face prosecution.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has acknowledged “difficulties in making applications for tests”. But Mr Dempsey added that “gardaí have advised motorists awaiting an NCT to carry proof of their appointment with them at all times”.

However, pressed for clarification on whether this meant motorists with a valid appointment may not be prosecuted, a department spokesperson commented that “enforcement is a matter for the gardaí”.

Some 25,000 motorists a week have been calling the NCT switchboard since the Minister’s announcement earlier this month. Neither SGS Ireland, which operates the testing system, nor the AA or the Road Safety Authority, was given advance notice of the three-week deadline.

From May 1st, drivers are to be issued with five penalty points for driving faulty vehicles, driving vehicles without a certificate of roadworthiness and failing to have an up-to-date NCT certificate. Motorists who fail to address defects identified by the NCT will receive three penalty points, as will truck drivers who strike overhead bridges.

Garda sources expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement, saying that the subjective interpretation of the law by individual gardaí was neither fair to them nor to motorists. The situation has been described as outrageous by Fine Gael’s transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd.

Remaining penalty point offences yet to be implemented despite assurances they would come into force in the first quarter of 2009 include demerits for public service vehicles without internal lighting, brake lights on trailers, and failure to fit speed limiters on heavy goods vehicles, among others.