414,000 Overdue Cars and the Government Said No to Reform
In February 2026, The Irish Times published documents showing that senior Department of Transport officials recommended splitting the Road Safety Authority into two separate bodies. One would handle operational stuff like the NCT and driver testing. The other would focus on road safety campaigns and policy.
Ministers Darragh O’Brien and Seán Canney rejected the plan.
Two weeks later, the Oireachtas Transport Committee heard the RSA described as “broken” and “beyond repair”. At the time, 414,000 cars were overdue for their NCT. The average wait for an appointment sat at 23 days nationally, with some centres pushing well past 12 weeks.
So what happened? And why should you care?
What the Indecon review actually found
Back in 2024, the Department of Transport paid Indecon Economic Consultants to carry out an independent review of the RSA. They didn’t pull punches.
| Issue | What Indecon found | Current status |
|---|---|---|
| NCT backlog | 414,000 cars overdue as of May 2026 | RSA claims it will halve the wait by end of June |
| Driver testing delays | Testers moved between categories to massage figures (per IRHA) | Minister pledged fortnightly checks |
| Road safety campaigns | “Not where it needs to be” (Minister Lawless, Oct 2024) | No structural change made |
| Structural recommendation | Split RSA into operations body + safety advocate office | Rejected by two ministers in Feb 2026 |
| Fatality rate | Ireland has highest rate for 16–24 age group in EU | Road deaths up 8% year-on-year |
The core recommendation? Separate the NCT and driver testing operations from road safety promotion. Create a new Office of the Road Safety Advocate inside the Department, with its own branding and independence. Let the operational body focus on actually running test centres and clearing queues.
The logic was straightforward: the RSA is trying to do too many things and doing none of them well. Running 47 test centres, managing driver tests, AND running public awareness campaigns is a load of different jobs under one roof.
Why the ministers said no
Minister O’Brien said past problems with the NCT and driver testing “were resolved by providing them with adequate resources and with department and ministerial oversight.”
He also pointed to the abandoned 30km/h default speed limit plan as an example of “progress on road safety”. Which is a grand claim about a plan that was, well, abandoned.
Minister of State Seán Canney said breaking up the RSA would require new legislation, and that would take 18 months to two years. His preference was to reform from within.
The LDSP Ireland campaign group called the reversal “deeply disappointing”, noting the recommendations were actually accepted in late 2024 before being quietly shelved.
What this means if you’re stuck in an NCT queue
The bureaucratic chess match inside Kildare Street doesn’t directly fix your problem. Your NCT disc is expired. She’s overdue. You’re technically driving illegally and your insurance company won’t thank you if something goes wrong.
The current plan from the RSA is to halve the average wait from 23 days to about 12 by end of June. Five new centres are coming but “coming” and “open” are different words. Meanwhile, the average first slot availability in April 2026 was 11.25 days nationally. That’s the average. Some centres on the M50 are booked weeks further out.
If you’re waiting for the government to sort this mess through structural reform, you’ll be waiting longer than you would for the NCT itself.
The faster route? Use an NCT cancellation slot scanner to catch slots that open when other drivers cancel or reschedule. Most cancellations appear with 48 to 72 hours’ notice, and they go fast.
The scam problem nobody fixed either
While politicians argued about org charts, criminals cloned the official NCTS booking website. Between January and April 2026, fake NCT sites charged drivers between €60 and €600 for bookings that didn’t exist. RTE covered multiple scam sites in April. Gardaí issued warnings. The RSA still hasn’t set up an automated email alert for drivers whose test is due.
One commenter on AskAboutMoney.com put it plainly: “Surely NCT should be emailing all customers who are required to do a NCT test in 2026 to make them aware of potential scams.”
That’s the kind of operational problem that might have been solved faster if someone was actually accountable for operations. Just saying.
The Leo Lieghio argument
Not everyone wanted the RSA torn apart. Leo Lieghio, vice-president of the Irish Road Victims Association, lost his teenage daughter at a pedestrian crossing. He argued the RSA should be strengthened, not disbanded. “The RSA is being blamed for problems,” he said, “but the ultimate power to take action lies with the government.”
He has a point. The RSA can’t build new test centres without funding. It can’t hire more testers without budget approval. And no amount of internal restructuring fixes an organisation that’s been starved of resources for years.
But the counter-argument is equally fair: if one body is responsible for both road safety education and running the NCT, and both are failing, maybe the structure itself is the problem.
Where things stand now (May 2026)
The RSA has a new CEO, Anne Graham, formerly of the National Transport Authority, appointed in February 2025. Five new test centres have been announced. The backlog has dropped slightly from 425,004 in March to 414,000 in May. The average wait has shortened a bit.
The structural reform recommended by Indecon? Shelved. The new Office of the Road Safety Advocate? Dead on arrival. Road deaths are up 8% and Ireland still has the worst fatality rate in the EU for young drivers aged 16 to 24.
If you’re due an NCT and the calendar shows nothing but grey dates for weeks, check the full list of NCT centre locations. Some quieter centres outside your county can have slots days earlier. Or try a different approach and let the bot do the watching for you.
For more on the broader picture, read our breakdown of Ireland’s 2026 Road Safety Strategy and how it affects your insurance and NCT. And if you’re in Dublin, the Northpoint 1 centre (Exit 4, M50) is one of the busiest but also where cancellations appear most often.
Frequently asked questions
What did the Indecon review recommend for the RSA?
The 2024 Indecon review recommended splitting the RSA into two bodies: an operations-focused agency handling the NCT and driver testing, and a new Office of the Road Safety Advocate within the Department of Transport for policy and public awareness campaigns. The government accepted the recommendations in late 2024 but both transport ministers rejected the plan in February 2026.
Will the RSA reform fix the NCT backlog?
Not directly, and not anytime soon. The reform was shelved. The current plan relies on five new test centres and extra capacity at existing ones. The RSA says it will halve the average wait to 12 days by end of June 2026. In the meantime, the NCT appointment bot can alert you when earlier cancellation slots appear.
How much is the NCT re-test fee in 2026?
A full NCT costs €55. If your car fails and you bring her back within 21 days for a re-test, it’s free. After 21 days, you pay the full €55 again. Some items like emissions or headlamp alignment can be retested at the same visit for no extra charge if you get them fixed nearby and return within a few hours.