Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
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The Road Safety Authority estimates that over 200,000 vehicles have an out-of-date NCT at any given time.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
License to print money.
Just leave it in the ashtray for them. You’ll pass no bother.
Extra shift working from midnight to 8 am is just a way of them not having to give you the free test. Who wants a test a 03.55 am… Your know in a position that if you refuse that time slot your no longer entitled to a free test… 55 euro please
All they need to do is issue the cert from the date a car is tested not its date of registration no need for 24 hrs
Who gets a free test?? It’s €55 a pop.
Kerry Blake
Its a licence to keep cars in road worthy condition I don’t believe as you call it I hope not .
@Genius, Thats in already if ya test early. If you test a car 90 days or more before its out, you get a full year from that date, if you test it within the 90 days of the last test being out, you get more then a year, up to a year and 90 days.
Im glad the Nct came in.. The roads are a lot safer because of it.. The charge is reasonable. Where as car tax needs to be reduced and VRT.
You got any data to prove your claim the roads are safer because of the NCT?
Except for the deep potholes they are car killers .
Kerry. The bangers that used to be on the road before hand. Atleast you know that the car with nct has a decent set of tyres and brake pads. It makes sense there safer. I dont agree with alot of different taxes, but sorry I do agree with this.
In theory the nct is a good idea. But when a car fails because a light in the car that affects nothing is out and you fail, that’s when it becomes ridiculous. My car passed everything else but the airbag light wouldn’t switch off, it was only a new rule they had brought in that yr (few years back) so the previous nct for it passed and then following time it failed. Was I less safe so the time it passed? If so then it was a waste of money. If not the new rule (which ended up costing me 300 to fix and even the mechanics said it made no difference to safety) was a waste of money
There was a car in front of me at the NCT centre and he never checked his faulty brake lights before the test – and had to get a retest. I counted 17 cars in 15 minutes where I live last week with only one headlight. Seems that people only check their cars when the NCT is due.
I bought a car last year that just passed the Nct a few months prior and the brakes failed on me driving it home. Mechanic said there is no way it would have passed the NCT. Lots of crooks out there
Yup. Nuts when you have to wait 4 months to get a slot and can’t tax your car in the meantime.
Book by phone. Never waited longer than 3 weeks or so. Worth noting that you’re entitled to a free test if you’ve to wait longer than a month. You don’t need an NCT to tax your car either. Who has fed you all of this?
You can still get your car taxed
My NCT was out on 17 January. Left it too late and tried to book online on 8th Jan and first slot available was 24th Feb so rang the appointment hotline, they said they’d get back to me, took them 3 weeks and when they did the priority appointment they gave me was for 7th April…….6 weeks LATER than the appointment I could have booked online!!
Your test should be free so. Same thing happened to me. I then rang for cancellations every morning and accepted one in a diff center still free . Worth checking out ! :-)
Its a well advertised fact someone wishing to book a Nct must book it well in advance for the due date The Gardai say they will no longer accept this excuse this was news only a short ago in all the media.
My nct is up end of this month booked in feb closest date was may 21st my nct is up end of march
I got a date within 2 weeks of ringing them.
Think that means you have to walk once your NCT is out tom? Otherwise points on your license…
@Tomthumb .. if you have a day off call your local test centre to see if there’s any cancelations. Or seems they open all hrs try everyday. You’ll defo get one.
Apparently you don’t have to pay if they can’t give you a test within 4 weeks? http://www.moneyguideireland.com/delays-may-mean-a-free-nct-test.html?fb_ref=Default&fb_source=message
If you booked it online, log back in for a reschedule. I’m pretty sure you’ll get a date in March, but in the evening or on a weekend day. Just did it last week for mine and my wife’s car. First booking was end of May. There were more time and date choices on the reschedule than on the first booking, and I did it the day after the first. Try it…
You are entitled to get it free if that is the case
Yes that’s if you get caught …
The DOE for commercial vehicles is a joke, a van I had failed because 1 spot light wasnt working, went to the mechanic and he just took the bulb out of the working one, went back and it passed.
I was already given an appointment on St Patricks day…which I rejected..I mean really..they gladly moved my appointment to the 18th March.
Now if I was told 2am 31st May…get lost.
Didnt the EU rule the NCT was illegal? Just asking
No. Why would they rule that having a safe car is illegal??
It’s time to scrap the NCT and don’t replace it. Liberate the people of Ireland from regulations and rules.
Absolute farce! Failed my test 4 weeks ago, did nothing with car, retested it & it passed ono bother. Total money spinner €€!
Well you hardly expect the Jobsbridge mechanics they’ll no doubt use, to work normal hours now do you?!
Yea slave labour no doubt
If NCT covered two years for all cars per visit, as it did originally, we would not have this problem.
A link with mileage or kilometres covered rather than age of vehicle would be fairer in any event.
Well said Sean….My wife’s 11 year old car does about 1,100 Kms between tests…..Soooo stupid testing yearly and the old cars are better looked after than 5 or 6 year old ones as it gets more attention to keep it going and
safe.
You can book your NCT up to 3 months in advance, so no excuse for ‘my nct runs out tomorrow and I can’t get a booking for a few weeks’. In general it’s good to have your car tested to ensure it is roadworthy, but for sure, the NCT testing procedures have flaws and improvements are required
We were told that with the new system you would have an appointment within 2 weeks, I’m now waiting 4 and still no appointment, when I do finally get one it will more than likely be during the week when I will have to take a day off work and lose out on pay just to get it done or refuse it, get points on my licence and wait another 4 weeks. I agree with what they are trying to do but not the way they are doing it, complete sham.
I went on line & had no problem getting a date for Deangrange. I had a choice of dates & times starting within 24 hrs. That was only last week
More time slots,more staff, wait for it,the guberment will announce that they have cleared the backlog and that’s why they have to increase it by a tenner,your welcome,please pay here. Retests should be free, no excuse for charging 30 odd quid when it’s for a wiper replacement or bulb check
Visual inspections such as bulb replacements are free re-tests. Only if they need to use a tool/machine do you have to pay for them. Then again a mate had her car fail because the license plate had a faded “Baile” along the top so who knows really…
So my car will fail the NCT quicker now
I’m waiting nearly 4 weeks on a “priority” list for Northpoint centre and I called again this morning and still no indication as to when I will get an appointment. This new system is a complete sham, introducing penalty points for people without an NCT and promising a test within 2 weeks yet here I am after nearly 4 weeks still waiting. Just another example how this disgrace of a government couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.
Which is why I used the online booking , so I could print out the date I applied (September) the expiry date (October) and the actual appointment date (December) – which was why the Gardai didn’t give me points or seize my car when stopped at a checkpoint in November as I could prove all of this.
My NCT is tomorrow morning at 3:45am in Deansgrange. Booked last week
In my view the NCT is set up all wrong.
Why is it run by the public sector – of course we’ll end up with long waiting lists.
In the UK, their equivalent is the MOT and is done by registered, private sector, mechanics. Doesn’t require (e.g.) all of Galway to descend on one centre!
Its not run by the public sector John, its contracted out to a private company called Applus, Im sure they have stringent comditions to meet as part of that contract.
Free nct if you don’t get an date within 30days of your expiration I believe
Up goes the price to pay for the night shift… what a con job
The longer hours means they can fail more vericles now so they will get much more call back fees of €28 euro a pop… ”Money for nothing and NO checks for free”… Another Stelth Tax and of course the motorist is an easy target as usual…
have your say