Naas NCT pass rate is less than half
NCT Centre at Toughers Business Park, Naas. Pic: Tony Keane.
STATISTICALLY, cars passing through the National Car Test (NCT) centre in Cahirciveen, County Kerry, have a greater chance of success.
But the Raod Safety Authority is insisting there is no point in bringing your car to the County Kerry town for the test.
“There are 32,000 vehicles going through the test centre at Naas every year as compared with 20,000 going to Cahirciveen so the failure rate will be higher in Naas,” Brian Farrell of the RSA told the Leader.
Mr. Farrell also said that many motorists are using the NCT as a diagnostic tool – meaning they bring the vehicles to be tested to find out what needs to be done to pass the test.
This, in turn, means that there is likely to be a higher fail rate at centres where a larger numbers of cars pass through.
He also pointed out that older cars are less likely to pass the NCT at the first time and there is evidence that people are holding on to the cars for longer.
Mr. Farrell also pointed out that there are huge differences between Driver Theory Test success rates at different centres.
This is despite the fact that the test questions are thrown up randomly by a computer.
The most recent figures show that 11,500 people did the test in Naas – which had a pass rate of 70%.
In Cahirciveen there were just 181 test candidates and the pass rate was 55%.
Mr. Farrell insisted that the NCT procedure is subject to a rigorous auditing system and this has been tightened since revelations about questionable practice at some centres.
The pass rate at the NCT centre near Naas is 49.7% - as compared with Cahirciveen, which had the highest national pass rate (49.7%) in 2011.
The pass rate in both Tullamore and Carlow is 45.7%, while the figure for Portlaoise is 54.1%. Some 49.2% of County Wicklow motorists go through the Arklow test centre successfully at the first time of asking.
The test centre with the lowest number of passes in 2011 was Clifden, Co. Galway (40.4%).
- Paula O’Meara
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Weather for Naas, Ireland
Saturday 18 May 2013
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