We would like to bring to your attention, the unwarranted and unconstitutional interference by Gardai at the illegal seizure and/or detention of citizens’ property, namely vehicles, particularly in border counties and throughout this Nation.

We would like to inform you that every citizen in this country including yourself and the Gardai has property rights recognised by the State under Article 43 of the Irish Constitution. By dispossessing citizen’s of their property vis a vis VRT/alleged owing of monies to the State, the effect of this is to breach peoples Constitutional rights to their property, interferes with the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions and in particular, and on every occasion, breaches the Principle of Proportionality which is not only recognised by the Supreme Court of Ireland and implicit in our own Constitution but is also a European Law right and a principle enshrined under the Treaty of Rome and the relevant Treaty Articles concerning the Free Movement of Goods and the Free Movement of Persons.

Every Irish citizen in this State, is entitled to due process to have their case heard in a court of law. It appears that Gardai are circumventing and undermining citizen’s rights by disregarding their Constitutional and EC Law rights and further compounding this disregard by omitting to take into consideration the constitutional requirement of due process. Only a court of law can direct the dispossession of a citizen’s property by means of a court order permitting such ‘dispossession’ and then only after the citizen has been given the opportunity of being heard.

We would appreciate a meeting with your good self in relation to discussing these serious matters. It is suggested by this Association’s members that consideration will be given to Court action against the Gardai should this situation continue unabated. We respectfully suggest that you ‘instruct’ the Nations’ Gardai that they are not entitled to take, seize, dispossess or otherwise interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of possessions of citizens where their property is concerned and lawfully owned, for we are extremely concerned that certain Inspectors and Superintendents appear to be under the false illusion that our Constitutional and EC Law rights have no effect, unless enacted by an Act of the Oireachtas.

We respectfully notify you that The Irish Constitution is superior to any Act of the Oireachtas and no Act can be enacted which is repugnant to our Constitutional rights. Furthermore, EC Law rights are part of Irish Law by virtue of the 1972 referendum on the Treaty of Rome which amended Article 29.4 of the Irish Constitution and where the formalities of this were competed as a result of the 1972 European Communities Act which have entrenched these property rights under guaranteed fundamental freedoms and as such cannot be interfered with.

We expect the Gardai to respect peoples’ property rights rather than attempt to dispossess them of their property and we are entitled to the protection of the Gardai as such. Failure to respect citizens’ property rights is likely to cause a serious loss of respect for the Gardai of which we have been informed by our members and the public in general. As servants of the State and the citizens, we expect and anticipate that our property rights will be vindicated.

Please respond soonest, as opposed to simply an acknowledgment of our letter and please indicate when a suitable date can be arranged for a constructive discussion on this matter. A copy of this letter will also be forwarded to the Minister for Justice.

E & OE.

Yours Faithfully,
……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

John Lernihan
National Chairman, Irish Drivers Association.
087 2509 123

Dear Mr. Cowen, Minister for Finance,

We refer to previous correspondence on the above matter. The association is calling for the abolition of vehicle registration tax on all new and second hand motor vehicles and the refunding of this tax to each citizen who purchased a new or second hand vehicle since this nations accession to the EU on the 1st.January 1973.

We request that consideration be strongly given to this matter in the forthcoming budget. Our reasons for this are numerous, not least the fact that the imposition of this tax breaches the provisions of Article 25 of the Treaty of Rome and in implementing inferior legislation in the form of a 1992 Statutory Instrument, deprived citizens of their Treaty entitlements, has made the cost of a vehicle prohibitively expensive and distorts the single internal market.

The VRT is a ‘cancer’ in Irish society in relation to motoring. VRT does not exist in several Member States. Why is the Irish citizen expected to pay more for their own goods? These matters have been extensively brought to your attention in previous correspondence. The responses are clearly unsatisfactory.

Other associations such as the AA and SIMI have made similar requests. We wish to add our voice to these requests. The European Parliament  are also on the citizens side and are seeking its abolition. The association will strongly resist any replacement of VRT on any other forms of taxation. We are also concerned that every aspect of motoring is taxed by this Government in every area of a vehicle’s use, from motor tax to maintainence, fuel tax etc. The effect of these burdensome taxes is to interfere in other areas of fundamental freedoms, most notably the free of movement of persons and the free movement of goods. Concern is being voiced by our members and the citizens in relation to further interference with our Constitutional and Treaty Rights by Gardai, customs and revenue attempting to dispossess citizens of their vehicles by demanding these ‘unlawful’ taxes which are clearly in dispute and we observe that under Article 10 of the Treaty of Rome, Member States are obliged to fulfil their Treaty obligations on behalf of the citizens and that good government in a democracy has, as its primary function, the implementation of the will of the people.

We intend to make this matter, an election issue in the forthcoming General Election and inform citizens of their Treaty rights which have been undermined and circumvented by inferior legislation which cannot usurp or Treaty rights and expectations which we signed up to as a result of a referendum. Surely, these rights, if we (as citizens) are to give them up, the State would be required to hold another referendum to allow the State to take away these rights!

We request a meeting to discuss these matters with you and in the meantime please consider our request for the abolition of VRT and its refund to citizens when formulating budget considerations.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue.

Yours Faithfully,
……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

John Lernihan
National Chairman, Irish Drivers Association.
087 2509 123

We have written to you on a number of occasions in connection with various motoring issues, NCT, VRT etc.

We have little or no response from the Minister of Transport even though thousands of our members disagree with his judgment and his predecessors.

It is in our opinion that it is an insult to the people of this nation that with the amount of waste of public finances of this Minister and refusals to meet with this association and failure to implement remedial measures to recover this loss of finance, that this minister is protected for some reason by this Government to continue ‘ripping-off’ the Irish citizen by wasting public taxes with impunity.

We advised this Minister that a fairer system concerning NCT is outlined by the EU in Directive 96/96, Article 2, that in particular, garages which also repair vehicles are also entitled to perform a vehicle test, obviating the necessity for long journeys, waste of fuel, working days lost, damage to the environment, a choice to the citizen as this is a matter of public importance, etc.

We have submitted 10 changes to the NCT/Minister, none of which have been implemented nor appear to have been contemplated or taken on board and the citizen/motorist was not allowed to have any say whatsoever in relation to the setting up of this NCTs or any say in which items were to be tested etc.

A response was issued from his office stating that no useful purpose would be served by such a meeting with this association. We disagree. This arrogance is indicative of a Minister, Department and a Government ‘disconnected’ from the people. This could not possibly be construed as ‘Democracy’ and it is becoming nervous and disconcerting that a NANNY/Dictatorship/police state appears to be emerging. The Government have become so ‘disconnected’ from its people, blinded by greed to the point that we are concerned that the only value a citizen appears to have in this country seems to be in relation to how much money can be extracted from the citizen to satisfy an insatiable desire of greed and power by this Government. How much money is needed or is enough and for what purpose? We are fed up that the legitimate expectation of motorists and citizens are being unfulfilled by not spending the money where it is supposed to go. As a brief example, statistics show approximately 25% or less of road tax is spent on the roads indicating that either we are paying 4 times too much for the road or we are waiting 4 times longer for our roads to be brought up to an acceptable standard. This certainly should have happened before the NCT should have been initiated. The roads are literally a disgrace and wrecking our vehicles and this Government has the audacity to have cars in a roadworthy condition when the very roads themselves could hardly be classed as fit to drive on.

Consideration will be given by this association to withholding tax if these conditions are not rectified not just in this area but in many other areas particularly the unlawful imposition of VRT which in our opinion must be abolished as well as refunded to the citizen as this tax is clearly in breach of Article 25 of the Treaty of Rome and no statutory instrument can be enacted which repudiates this responsibility of this Government to comply with your Article 10 Treaty obligations nor deprive the citizens of this nation of the benefits which were bestowed upon them by acceding to the EU as result of a referendum which our forefathers participated in, in 1972. If our Treaty rights are to be ‘derogated’ from, then a referendum should and must be held to allow the citizen to decide for themselves, democratically, whether or not our Government can override our Treaty rights! NO Irish enactment of law is superior to EU law concerning Community matters, for example in relation to the Free Movement of Goods. How can movement of goods be FREE, when the Government impose VRT and VAT, not separately, but ‘cumulatively’. The imposition of tax destroys the concept of the FREE movement of goods.

It is our opinion that Minister Cullen and his colleagues will pull this Government down without our help. We intend to spearhead a campaign to ‘resurrect democracy’ and give ‘power back to the people’ by having a Government of the people, for the people and by the people because regretfully, we seem to have lost this ideal, the Government seem to have lost sight of this ideal with their arrogance, and we appear to have become lost in the illusion of ‘democracy’ when in reality, it has become a dictatorship and this will not be tolerated by this association which is growing rapidly.

We enclose a copy of our recent letter to Martin Cullen.

Is it possible that you would deal with this matter personally, and we would appreciate your help and cooperation on these important issues before they get out of hand and potentially become important election issues? We would appreciate an answer to our letter, rather than an ‘acknowledgement’, sooner, rather than ‘later’. Thank you for your attention.

Yours Faithfully,

……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

John Lernihan
National Chairman, Irish Drivers Association.
087 2509 123

Since NCTs does not guarantee the roadworthiness of a vehicle for the duration of the period of the certificate and that the responsibility lies on the motorist to maintain their vehicles in a roadworthy condition, what is the purpose of your ‘test’ as you now indicate that it is the owners responsibility to maintain the vehicle after the test and for the next two years. During this period, who decides whether the vehicle is roadworthy or not? From your response, it is the owner, and if the owner was responsible and continues to be responsible for the ‘roadworthiness’ of the vehicle before and after the test, the question arises again, what is the purpose of this test?

Briefly, the insurance company covers the motorist for the full duration of the insurance certificate and the motor tax covers the use of the road for the full duration of the motor tax disc, yet you are inferring that your two year certificate is only valid on the day of the test, if it is even valid on that day! How therefore can NCTs purport to issue a ‘roadworthiness’ certificate for two years if no legal responsibility attaches to the issuing of your certificate for that duration?

Thank you for your NCT manual. We observe that 57 items are required to be checked. How then can NCTs have approximately 385 failure points on 57 items? This is totally disproportionate to the time duration of the test as well as being indicative of a ‘failure mentality’ where the odds of a failure are in the NCTs favour. If 57 items are to be tested, then there should only be 57 items of failure. We also observe that you have 58 items of failure approximately on bulbs alone. We have 2 of everything in relation to bulbs. That is why there is two of everything. Are you seriously suggesting that a vehicle is ‘unroadworthy’ for the sake of a bulb? Is my house ‘unliveable’ or ‘unhouseworthy’ if my living-room bulb becomes extinguished?

The recent 19 changes to NCTs have nothing to do with roadworthiness or safety and we observe that the recommended changes of improvement suggested by this association were never implemented nor even contemplated and this will be communicated to the Department of Transport.

We do not wish to see how the test is performed in Dublin on one of your ‘typical lanes’. We are campaigning strongly for the removal of NCTs and for reputable local garages to perform this test in accordance with the provisions of Directive 96/96, Article 2. The reason for this is that thousands of our members have legitimate complaints which have been consistently ignored by NCTs and the Minister and the Department of Transport and the arrogance of your staff which no citizen in this country is going to tolerate.

We now enclose evidence of many organisations and media which have investigated your behaviour and performance and which consistently shows that this company is engaging in practices which are clearly ‘ripping-off’ the Irish citizen to ‘maximise your profits’ and the Government have given NCTs a monopoly ‘licence’ to ‘rip us off’. For this and other reasons, many of our members do not wish to participate or have this test conducted by NCTs where they are servicing and maintaining their vehicle by getting them regularly serviced at the manufacturer’s recommended intervals so as to avoid being subjected to the levels of ‘abuse’ inflicted on our members. The degrading attitude of staff of NCTs towards the motorist has caused a deterioration of respect for NCTs and contrary to the Minister implying that 90% of motorists are satisfied with NCTs, we find that the opposite is the case.

Thank you for attention.

cc. Minister Martin Cullen at the Department of Transport.
……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary
087 231 2250.

……………………….
John Lernihan
National Chairman
087 250 9123

Ladies and Gentlemen, TD’s Senators and Members of the JOC, we wish to thank you for giving us this opportunity to present concerns from our members on various aspects of Transport. We are grateful and we thank you in advance for hearing us.

Issues that we wish to deal with at this meeting are the following:

1. NCT (National Car Test) which we enclose evidence of the disgraceful performance of this test and the unwarranted treatment of the Irish motorist in connection with same, and the failure of the mid-term review report and the refusal of Ministers to answer our letters and also the incompatibility of the NCT with the objectives of EU Directive 96/96.
2. Penalty Points, which is already covered by Irish Law, the punitive mentality of the Government in relation to penalty points and attempts to usurp the powers of the courts and deprive the citizen of access to challenge these ‘punitive’ measures and deprive the citizen of access to justice and further draconian measures by doubling or trebling penalty points if the ‘system’ is challenged.
3. Condition of the Roads, failure to spend the road tax on the roads, tolls, and the system of road tax, the exploring of the possibility of including road tax in the petrol. Many benefits would flow from this.

We have had thousands of complaints from people in connection with NCT, their staff attitude and behaviour, manifesting itself in rudeness, impoliteness, dismissiveness and inattention to citizens concerns. It has been pointed out to us in numerous circumstances concerning failure of their vehicles which has nothing to do with its safety or its roadworthiness. These would not have occurred had this NCT Company not been given a ‘monopoly’ control of this situation, by the Dept. of Transport. The citizen has been deprived of the benefits of Article II of Directive 96/96 by being denied the choice of having their vehicles tested in conjunction with the service of their vehicles at their local garage. This denial has contributed to the ‘monopoly’ situation which NCT have been afforded and are currently enjoying. The effect of this is that the NCT think they can do what they like and the citizen has little or no redress against them. This dictatorial style attitude from NCT is not acceptable to the Irish Motorist or this Association and this monopoly situation is being used to continually fraud the citizen to the point that it is gone ‘beyond a joke’ and is in our opinion a criminal offence and potentially an infringement of Article 82 of the Treaty of Rome. It is despicable to think that the citizen is to be penalised for not having an NCT certificate when NCT themselves appear to have criminal immunity. It is our belief that the effect of this behaviour is that the Government via the Department of Transport has indicated to SGS, a foreign company brought in by Price-WaterHouse Coopers  ‘ come in here to Ireland, and rip off the Irish citizen’. With respect, the Government has a duty to protect its citizens from any type of abuse, potentially or actually from being inflicted on the Irish Citizen. We observe, that notwithstanding the massive complaints from citizens, directly and through this association and documentary evidence through the media, radio programmes etc, the Government and the Dept. of Transport has stood idly by and done nothing to alleviate this abuse, corruption and fraud. PWC was also contracted to set up the mid-term review when they were directly involved in the setting up of NCT which in our opinion involves a conflict of interest.*

The continual high failure rate is attributable to such irrelevant and minor requirements as part of an approximately 400 item check criteria when Directive 96/96 requires only 2 items to be tested, namely brakes and emissions, relating to safety and the environment respectively. Notwithstanding that Article 5 allows Member States to ‘increase the number of items to be tested’, where did 398 other items come from and one would expect these items to be directly related to safety and the environment and not to issues unconnected with these matters.

The Directive refers to ‘tests’ being ‘inexpensive’. By contrast, the NCT have not made the test cost €49, but €49 + €27.50 retest when they are deliberately and with impunity failing citizens vehicles for one purpose and one purpose only, that is to ‘maximise profits’ whilst simultaneously engaging in a criminal activity of ‘frauding’ and making a fool of and at the expense of an already hard pressed, over burdened, over taxed Irish citizen in relation to motoring costs and maintenance costs.
2 year duration to be from the date of test and not the date of registration of the car. Too many complaints from citizens saying cert was given for only one year or 6 months. This is an example of abuse/exploitation of the system and the citizen. How can you backdate a cert with retrospective effect?

Infringement of constitutional rights to peaceful enjoyment of possessions. Freedom of movement = fundamental freedom under Article 39, Treaty of Rome.
Who decided what the number and criteria of the additional 398 items and on what grounds did they feel they were entitled to do so.

Which documents contains a list of all these additional items?

Has the DOT and/or NCT issued a copy of these requirements and/or Directive 96/96 or the Irish Implementing Regulations for this Directive been issued to the Irish Motorist? If not, Why Not?

Democracy. The wishes of the citizens are not being implemented because we are not being listened to!

We, as an Association are requesting  the JOC to consider the removal of NCT by not renewing their contract and giving the consumer a better choice by enabling major and local garages to be allowed to become designated vehicle testing centres as per Article II of Directive 96/96. We also consider that without these measures, the Directive is improperly implemented and if necessary we will consider taking this matter up with the European Parliament.

Yours Faithfully,

……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

We refer to your recent letter to Dan Danagher to the Clare Champion where you referred to the Association and mentioned that there were over 400 items to be tested by NCTS on  a citizens’ vehicle.

Could you please forward a copy of the over 400 items to be tested so that we can make our members aware of the items to be tested.

As the test is approximately 20 minutes, does that mean NCTS can test each of the 400 items within that period of time.

Could you also advise the legal status of the test and whether the ‘disc’ is a certificate or constitutes a certificate of roadworthiness. Does NCTS, in issuing the ‘certificate’, take legal responsibility for the vehicle, for the duration of the period of validity of the NCTS certificate, i.e. 2 years?

We look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you.

Yours Faithfully,

……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary
087 231 2250.

……………………….
John Lernihan
National Chairman
087 250 9123

To: NCTS, Lakedrive 3026, CITYWEST Business Campus, Naas Road, Dublin 24.

Dear Ombudsman,

We refer to our telephone conversation of this morning concerning the non-response of Government Departments, in particular the Department of Transport and the Department of Finance, to our letters of concern relating to NCT, VRT and other matters.

If The Ombudsman requires copies of the correspondence which has been written these will be produced on request.

In particular, we refer to our letters dated 25th.February 2006 addressed to Ministers Cowen & Cullen, which was further supposedly handed in to Minister Cowen by Enda Kenny at our protest outside the Dail on the 1st. March last, letter dated 18th. February 2006 to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, letter dated 16th. March 2006 to Minister Gallagher, Department of Transport and our letter dated 5th. April 2006 to Minster Cowen at the Department of Finance including many letters in 2005 all of which the Departments have failed to respond but especially the Department of Transport.

We would appreciate your intervention in this matter with a view to having our concerns responded to in a satisfactory, respectful and dignified manner, rather than being ignored by our Government Departments.

In anticipation of your co-operation in this matter, thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

Enclosed, please find information about our Association.

Yours Faithfully,
……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

John Lernihan
National Chairman, Irish Drivers Association.
087 2509 123

Ladies and Gentlemen, TD’s Senators and Members of the JOC, we wish to thank you for giving us this opportunity to present concerns from our members on various aspects of Transport. We are grateful and we thank you in advance for hearing us.

We have had hundreds of complaints from people in connection with NCT staff attitude and behaviour, manifesting itself in rudeness, impoliteness, dismissiveness and inattention to citizens concerns. It has been pointed out to us in numerous circumstances concerning failure of their vehicles which has nothing to do with its safety or its roadworthiness. These would not have occurred had this NCT Company not been given a ‘monopoly’ control of this situation. The citizen has been deprived of the benefits of Article II of Directive 96/96 by being denied the choice of having their vehicles tested in conjunction with the service of their vehicles at their local garage. This denial has contributed to the ‘monopoly’ situation which NCT have been afforded and are currently enjoying. The effect of this is that the NCT think they can do what they like and the citizen has little or no redress against them. This dictatorial style attitude from NCT is not acceptable to the Irish Motorist or this Association and this monopoly situation is being used to continually fraud the citizen to the point that it is gone ‘beyond a joke’ and is in our opinion a criminal offence and potentially an infringement of Article 82 of the Treaty of Rome.

The continual high failure rate is attributable to such irrelevant and minor requirements as part of an approximately 400 item check criteria when Directive 96/96 requires only 2 items to be tested, namely brakes and emissions, relating to safety and the environment respectively. Notwithstanding that Article 5 allows Member States to ‘increase the number of items to be tested’, where did 398 other items come from and one would expect these items to be directly related to safety and the environment and not to issues unconnected with these matters.

The Directive refers to ‘tests’ being ‘inexpensive’. By contrast, the NCT have not made the test cost €49, but €49 + €27.50 retest when they are deliberately and with impunity failing citizens vehicles for one purpose and one purpose only, that is to ‘maximise profits’ whilst simultaneously engaging in a criminal activity of ‘frauding’ and making a fool of and at the expense of an already hard pressed, over burdened, over taxed Irish citizen in relation to motoring costs and maintenance costs.

At the Joint Oireachtas Committee, we, as an Association will be requesting the removal of NCT by not renewing their contract and giving the consumer a better choice by enabling major and local garages to be allowed to become designated vehicle testing centres as per Article II of Directive 96/96. We will be indicating that without these measures, the Directive is improperly implemented and if necessary will take this matter up with the European Parliament.

Yours Faithfully,
……………………
John Lernihan
Chairman.

As an Association of Irish Drivers we speak for both the Association and the majority of motorists in this country and wish to express our concern about the numerous ‘rip-off’s’ existing in this country in relation to motoring costs

We are not requesting, but demanding, the immediate abolition of VRT on cars. We already wrote to you prior to the Budget and you did nothing to alleviate these concerns and we have an expectation that you would have at the very least done something to remove this unfair and unwarranted and unlawful burden on an already heavily taxed motorist.

You should be aware that the VRT is an unlawful tax in that it breaches Article 25 of the Treaty of Rome and Ireland, as a member State, is in breach of their treaty obligations, not just under Article 25, but also under Aticle10. The Irish population acceded to the EU on the 1st.January 1973 and it was the Irish people’s decision that the benefits which flowed, as is our rights, under these Treaty Articles should be bestowed upon the Irish People. This has not happened and our cars, because of VRT are approximately 25% more expensive than in other EU Member States. Recently, the European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs, Mr. Kovacs expressed concern to you in relation to this matter. The Irish People have been expressing concern about VRT for the past 33 years. No one in Government has listened to the people! Where is Democracy? The Irish Government plead the loss of 1Billion euro if VRT is abolished. Do you not realise that the Irish Government were never entitled to this money in the first place and successive governments have literally ‘ripped-off’ the Irish motorist for the past 33 years!

Can you please explain why there is such a resistance to grant these benefits to the Irish citizens under our Treaty Articles? Not only are we requesting the immediate abolition of VRT, we are also demanding that VRT be refunded to all motorists who have purchased a new car since the 1st.January 1973. The benefits would be huge, not least, more affordable cars ( The Government keeps talking about ‘affordable housing’ don’t they) which would improve greatly, safety on Irish roads, environmental benefits and reduction of accidents and road deaths, and by creating more volume in new car sales, there is a win win situation for all concerned.

The NCT is additionally ‘ripping-off’ the Irish citizen, by having a monopoly in Ireland. The NCT now appear to be abusing their dominant position under Articles 81 & 82 of the Treaty of Rome, such position being created by the Government. Why are local major garages that service cars, prevented from offering the NCT as part of a normal service? Why is the issue of an NCT certificate not valid for 2 years from the date of the test? The NCT for some reason seems to think each car has a birthday, i.e. the registration date of the car. This is just a rule/regulation to obtain more money from the motorist. Why are cars unnecessarily being failed in relation to criteria which has nothing to do with safety or the roadworthiness of the car? Why are NCT proffering these kinds of ridiculous excuses to Irish citizens? What is the legal status of NCT issuing a certificate of roadworthiness when apparently their liability end after the car leaves their premises. Why are State cars exempt from the NCT?  If a certain sector is exempt from NCT, how therefore can the law apply equally to everyone? If it does not apply equally to all sectors, then it is not a law! We have heard citizens being failed for having 2 bags of shopping in the boot or the back seat, the interior light not functioning, and for not having the wheel trims removed when a request could be made for them to be removed if an oversight has occurred and there are many more examples, not least, the inaccuracies in the testing equipment at NCT centres and one citizen actually seeing an NCT mechanic adjust his headlights out of focus after they had been focussed just before the test occurred and why, up to 50% of cars are failed even when nothing is wrong with the cars to comply with NCT’s defined statistics. The treatment of the Irish citizen by NCT is both arrogant and unwarranted and the criteria for test on a vehicle should be clearly defined in advance of any test. The NCT are literally ‘ripping-off’ the Irish motorist with their ‘tactics’ and the Government have stood idly by and allowed this to be inflicted on their own citizens!

We see no reason why main dealers and appropriate garages which is carrying better equipment than the NCT should be prevented from carrying out this function or a better system implemented. Indeed EU Directive 96/96 provides for this. In any event, when a citizen services their car regularly, as identified by the service book or maintenance manual and a citizen has been informed by a garage that their car is safe and roadworthy, why is it necessary for the NCT to tell them the same information, information which they already know, and charge them €49 for 20 minutes observations.

This association does not accept this test in its present form and major reform is necessary if the Irish motorist is to have any confidence in the system. It is, in our opinion another aspect of ‘rip-off’ Ireland.  It has been brought to our attention by our members that unless improvements are implemented, that this NCT test should be boycotted.

In relation to penalty points, why is it necessary to penalise the Irish motorist and why does the Minister have this mentality? Is the Irish motorist to be penalised more, having been ripped off for years or to be supported through proper educational programmes designed to enhance safety. For example, simulators provide a great means of improving Irish driving well above the standard of the average driver. Why are there no simulators in each province in Ireland? You will not improve driver behaviour or attitude by threatening more penalties on an already over penalised motorist. If the Minister purports to introduce 31 more penalty points, a referendum should be held to allow the people to decide, as this is a very serious issue not to be decided by one man who is capable of wasting millions of public funds and still holds office. If penalty points are going to exist, then ‘bonus points’ must also exist to balance this detriment. Thus if a motorist drives safely every day, this should generate bonus points for the motorist who drives safely and consideration should be given to this. The motorist is simply fed up of being penalised in one form and another.

The Motor tax is another aspect of ‘rip-off’ Ireland to the extent that the money is simply not being spent fast enough on the roads, the motor tax system does not recognise an overpayment of road tax and the system does not recognise a refund of road tax even when there is three months or more remaining on our road tax discs. Consideration should now be given to including the road tax in the petrol because of the many benefits this would bring, not least every citizen then pays for the road in direct proportion to their use of the road, freeing up Garda time on the road which in turn would free up the Court’s time, as road traffic legislation is the most challenged legislation in this country because it is the most unfair and the most punitive and higher choices can be made if only our government were prepared to explore these possibilities and listen to the people. The road tax is contained in the petrol in the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and other countries and in Australia, the use of the road also includes third party insurance helping to lower insurance premiums, bring major benefits to their citizens. We are seriously concerned about Gardai thinking they can dispossess citizens of their cars in breach of our Constitutional and EC Law rights in relation to motor tax or customs and excise in relation to VRT and to a citizens freedom of movement under Article 39 and also Article 49 of the Treaty of Rome.

This association also wishes to contribute to improved driver behaviour and attitude to assist in reducing road accidents such as simulators, improvements in the issuing of driving licences and many other aspects including the disgraceful state of our roads, national and secondary.

We now request a meeting with both Ministers as soon as possible. We are grateful for your time in reading our letter and look forward to hearing from you in due course. Many thanks.

Yours Faithfully,

…………………………………
Mr.John Lernihan, National Chairman
Tel: 087 250 9123

………………………………..
Mr.David Russell, National Secretary
Tel: 087 231 2250

The Irish Drivers Association was formed in Clare 2 years ago with the objective of protecting the rights and opinions of Irish motorists. For too long the motorist has been ignored notwithstanding the billions of Euro we have contributed to the Irish Exchequer with little in return.

We are not against penalty points but the Minister appears to be engaging in a ‘penalty’ style mentality as a means of securing driver compliance in terms of road behaviour instead of promoting and spending funds on educational programmes to improve driver behaviour on our roads.

We are now presently 8000 members strong nationwide and growing weekly. The Minister’s ‘penalty’ style mentality is a means of extracting more revenue from an already hard pressed motorist. For example, there are 69 ways of getting points on one’s licence, the effect of which, in relation to the most minor offence, penalises the motorist three times, i.e. 2 penalty points attracts a fine of €80 and an increase in one’s insurance premium. Why should a motorist be penalised 3 times for the one ‘offence’? By this means the Government also wish to close off the Court system of due process, literally preventing a citizen from challenging the imposition of penalty points and/or the fine by doubling the penalty points on one’s licence if a motorist has the ‘audacity’ to challenge the ‘offence’ if one loses their case in court. Regretfully, it appears that the already burdened motorist, is simply another means to extract as much money from a citizen as possible. Hence the introduction of more and more penalty points.

The Drivers Association are concerned about the following:

The introduction of more penalty points concerning offences which the law already covers.

The rip off in VRT which is, in our opinion, in breach of Article 25 of the Treaty of Rome, and the Irish Government as a member state has an obligation under Article 10 to enforce their Treaty obligations. Again, here we have a system of the Irish Motorist being penalised unnecessarily by having our cars approximately 33% more expensive than in other member states and this ‘rip-off’ has continued unabated since the 1st.January 1973.

The ‘rip-off’ concerning NCT. This is a system designed to ‘rip-off’ unsuspecting Irish Citizens whose cars are being ‘failed’ for reasons unconnected with the vehicle’s safety or roadworthiness and when ‘challenged’ on reasons for failure, the NCT issue pathetic excuses and the appeal system is a joke.

The rip-off concerning motor taxation to the extent that approximately only 25% or less, of road tax is used on our roads so that we are either paying four times too much for the roads or waiting four times longer for the roads to be brought up to acceptable standards, a system whereby overpayments of road tax is not recognised nor refunded and a system whereby the motor tax office will not refund even if one has more than 3 months remaining on their road tax disc. Therefore the Government should give serious consideration to exploring the possibility of including the road tax in the petrol because of the many benefits which would flow from this, not least every citizen paying for the road in direct proportion to their use of the road, freeing up Garda time on the roads which in turn frees up Court time and eliminating discrimination against drivers of larger and/or smaller cc cars.

Tolls are another form of unnecessary tax. If a motorist has paid their road tax, why is it necessary to pay a toll or even a parking fee. This is tax upon tax upon tax, another aspect of rip-off motoring. The Government obtains approximately 63% excise duty on a litre of petrol. Why does the Government want this much tax on fuel. Why does the Government need this massive percentage and furthermore what is being done with it? Why is the road tax not contained in this tax? These taxes are deliberately being kept separate so as top create a system of double taxation is it not?

This Association has been refused a meeting with the Minister of Transport, who considered that such a meeting “ Would serve no useful purpose.” How does the Minister come to this conclusion on behalf of the Association or the Irish Motorist? We are supposed to be living and participating in a Democracy, not a Dictatorship and we are entitled to be heard and we have an expectation to be heard. After all, are the prospective political candidates going to listen to the people at Election time and most importantly – between election times at constituency level and by-elections.

The Association has met with Price Waterhouse Coopers in connect ion with the mid-term review of the NCT. This review went into the 10 year contract to protect the consumer, but to date the mid-term review has not been released one year after the proposed review. We are now 6 years into the contract. The purpose of the mid-term review was to check and see how this company (SGS) were performing. We are all aware that in many instances it has been a total rip-off of the consumer and unsatisfactory because of a monopoly situation. Whilst purporting to be performed for safety reasons, it has not contributed to increased safety standards or reduction in road accidents but is perceived by much of the public as a money-spinning exercise imposed on an already overburdened and overtaxed Irish motorist. It is our belief that PWC were contracted by the Dept. of Transport to set up the NCT and were then contracted 5 years later to do the mid-term review. It is our understanding that this represents a clear conflict of interest and this Government has failed to do anything about it. It is our belief that an investigation should now take place into SGS of Switzerland, PWC and the Dept. of Transport as the consumer and Irish motorist’s expectations have not been fulfilled.

We expect to be 20,000 strong by the next General Election and it is our intention that our voice on behalf of the motorist will be heard. These taxes are over burdensome and we wish this unwarranted burden to be alleviated by SUBSTANTIAL reductions in taxes.

We also as an Association wish to contribute our expertise and experience to the Government to exploring the possibility of reducing road deaths, improved driver behaviour and attitude and the issuing of driving licenses and many other related issues and for the Government to consult this Association in all matters of motoring.

Thank you Taoiseach, for taking the time to read our concerns and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Faithfully,

……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

John Lernihan
National Chairman, Irish Drivers Association.
087 2509 123