RSA looking for 'risk averse' head of NCT services amid massive backlog
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The Road Safety Authority is to hire a new “risk averse” head of NCT services amid a massive backlog in waiting times for the test.
The authority, which outsources operations of the National Car Test via a €650m contract with Spanish firm Applus, is seeking a new hire to “manage the delivery of the NCT service and associated contracts through a commercial relationship with the agreed service providers”.
According to the job specifications for the new role, the person hired will be “responsible for ensuring the quality and timely delivery of the services against agreed targets”.
To that end, the new role will hold responsibility for “ensuring and improving performance” with regard to “demand management, forecasting and capacity”, the RSA said.
The successful candidate will be a “risk averse” and a "strategic thinker”, the RSA said, with the “ability to convert strategy into operational execution”.
Salary for the position will begin at €74,700, in accordance with the civil service salary scale for assistant principal officers.
While the RSA has overall responsibility for the NCT, first introduced in Ireland in 2000, the operation of the test is handled by Applus, which has held the contract since 2010.
Average wait times at NCT centres have ballooned over the past 12 months, with waits of six months or more common across the country.
At present, more than 300,000 motorists across the country, including 41,000 in Cork, are waiting to have their vehicles tested for roadworthiness.
Some 34,909 people are awaiting their NCT date, with a further 6,303 on a cancellation list in Cork alone, according to figures obtained by Sinn Féin.
As of April 5, 301,895 tests were booked across the country, with a further 41,940 on the waiting list, according to the RSA in response to a parliamentary question from Cork North-Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould.
About 1.5m cars are due to be tested this year, but “multiple factors have caused a build-up of demand and recruitment issues due to a shortage of mechanics have constrained capacity, as NCTS has been unable to carry out as many tests as planned”, RSA chief operations officer Brendan Walsh said.
Dublin has nearly 95,000 cars booked in for a test, with a further 19,500 on the waiting list.
Last October, RSA chief executive Sam Waide told the Oireachtas transport committee the backlog in NCT appointments was attributable to “multiple factors”, including the impact of covid, which caused “significant” staff absences at test centres, together with high levels of customer no-shows and late cancellations.