THE AVERAGE WAITING time for a National Car Test (NCT) appointment is still almost double the pre-pandemic level, as the service continues to experience staffing disruption due to Covid-19.

In January and February alone this year there were 36,000 test appointment cancellations, of which 11,400 were cancelled by the NCTS.

The service has said levels of Covid-19 among staff have presented challenges, but it has been criticised for failing to ensure contingency plans were in place to cope with the considerable backlog that built up during the pandemic. 

One reader who contacted The Journal this week said a mid-June appointment that was booked back in February has now been cancelled. The car’s NCT will expire in April. 

“I looked on the NCT site and the next available date is July 8th for Waterford and August 5th for Kilkenny,” he said. “I don’t know if this is isolated or nationwide, but a three and a half month wait is a bit crazy.”

Similar delays have been reported elsewhere:

Need to book the car in for the NCT, which expires soon, but the next available appointments I'm getting in Dublin are in July? Any one with any advice on this? Try and get on a cancellation list?

— The Champ Champs (@GifsRugbyNStuff) March 5, 2022

NCT due at the end of May, logged on to have a look at appointments. None till August and been told to basically call them and monitor the website regularly to be able to get one. 🤔😂

— Avril Hayden 🇮🇪🇪🇺 (@AvvyEire) March 24, 2022

Labour TD Duncan Smith raised the issue in the Dáil last week, citing an example of one driver whose NCT is due in July, but who could only get an appointment in August, five months from now. 

“Another constituent, whose NCT is due in coming weeks, cannot get a test until late August,” he said.

“He is a young learner driver who is paying extortionate insurance costs and is preparing to take his driving test in April. Those are two reasons this young man needs his NCT as soon as possible.

In recent days people in my office checked and the earliest date they could get a test was in July, but in Naas and not anywhere in Fingal or other areas of Dublin. That is three months away in another county. The earliest time for any test in Dublin was August or September.

Responding to Smith last week, Minister of State Joe O’Brien said cancellation figures include “very high levels of customer no-shows and late cancellations, undoubtedly as a result of Covid-19″.

This has led to an average lead time for an appointment of just under 21 days in this quarter to date, he said. Before the pandemic, the average waiting time was up to 12 days.

Speaking to The Journal, Duncan Smith described the delays as “unacceptable”.

“Where it really becomes a hot issue is people who need an NCT in order to continue driving lessons or to take up employment,” he said.

“There seems to be an uptick recently in people talking up employment and it’s becoming a major problem, people need transportation for work so it’s hugely frustrating for them. These people need a far shorter timeframe than what’s on offer.”

Smith said the priority list, which people can request to be added to if their NCT is approaching its expiration date, also appears to be “totally overwhelmed”. 

On 23 March approximately 18,000 people were on the priority waiting list, with 32,500 full tests carried out each week – this means more than half of the tests carried out each week are in this urgent category. 

Applus+, which runs the NCT service in Ireland, said has said will do its best to accommodate all customers on the priority list within 28 days of application. The company said it has had “significant staff absenteeism levels” at test centres due to the impact of Covid, as well as high levels of customer cancellations and no-shows. 

Smith said some of the services directly run by the state, such as Revenue and the Passport service, which were also significantly impacted by backlogs during the pandemic, have managed to “recover more quickly”. 

“When it comes to outsourced State service throwing out the Covid excuse and hoping people accept it, it’s unacceptable because there are other reasons this has happened,” he said. “They haven’t planned or hired early enough, or put in place adequate contingencies.”

In the Dáil last week, Minister of State Joe O’Brien said the NCTS had taken a number of steps to provide additional capacity at test centres in the immediate term, including offering overtime to staff and running a longer shift schedule than normal.

“This is in addition to ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency of service delivery and recruit additional staff, including securing agreement from the RSA to develop a proposal for an alternative resourcing model to provide semi-skilled staff capacity to complete machine-led elements of the inspection process,” he said. 

“This will be considered further in the coming months with a view to establishing a pilot scheme.”

The service has completed over 470,000 tests so far this year. Over the quarter, 13,500 tests were cancelled by the NCTS, while customers cancelled 32,500 tests. 

In a statement, Applus+ said centres in Letterkenny and Drogheda are particularly challenged as they are undergoing refurbishment work to the customer waiting areas. This has led to reduced capacity at the centres. 

However the company said Covid-related staff absenteeism and customer cancellations and no-shows are the main reason the increase in waiting list. 

It said the NCTS releases appointment slots continually across all centres and many slots also become available through cancellations or rescheduling of appointments.

“Some customers may only find dates that are beyond the due date for their NCT. If a customer requires an appointment sooner than those available online, they should contact NCTS directly on (01) 4135992 or place themselves on the priority list online,” it said.

NCTS will do its best to accommodate all customers on the priority list within 28 days of application. As a result, any customer booking an NCT for their car, four weeks before its due date, will be able to have their car tested on time.

“Customers have the option of having their car tested up to 90 days in advance of their test due date without affecting the validity period of the certificate issued, which allows them to ensure a suitable test date at their preferred centre and avoid incurring the risk of delays during busy times.”