CHANGES ARE BEING made to NCT centres across the country following an increase for appointments last year.

Longer opening hours and extra test lanes are among the measures being introduced – 24 hour testing started at the Northpoint test centre in Dublin last night.

This facility will be available four nights a week and is being shared between the Northpoint test centre and Deansgrange in Dublin.

The 24-hour testing also started at Little Island test centre in Cork tonight. The Minster for Transport Paschal Donohoe said,

This will facilitate owners who work shifts or who may require an urgent appointment and has already proved very popular with 100% of night time slots available for the first week having been booked up quickly.

Opening hours at 20 centres have been extended to provide at least one additional day of either later or earlier opening.

Centres in Galway, Ballina, Enniscorthy and Killarney will now provide testing from 7am to 11.30pm four days a week.

Extra lanes and more staff

Additional test lanes have also been provided at Blarney, Naas, Mullingar and Portlaoise test centres.

While extra vehicle inspectors have also been recruited, bringing the number to 580 - the highest ever in the history of NCT.

This will give the NCTS the capacity to carry out more than 150,000 additional tests this year, compared to last.

The Road Safety Authority estimates that over 200,000 vehicles have an out-of-date NCT at any given time.

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