There can sometimes be  fairly long delays in some parts of the country when applying for  NCT tests.
The worst period is always around December and January – because  it was January when most people bought their new cars 4 years ago.
But – every cloud has a silver lining -  delays could mean you get a free NCT !  ( An  NCT test costs €50 Euro )

According to the NCT customer charter – the NCT aim to :

“ensure that the average lead time for an appointment at an individual test centre is less than three weeks and no greater than four weeks. The customer will be provided with a test free of charge where an appointment cannot be offered within a four week period provided that:

• The Customer has not declined a test appointment (either confirmed or provisional) more than twice, at a centre of their choosing, for the test due at this time

• The Customer has not previously accepted a booking outside of the 4 week period.”

The NCT charter also says that customers are entitled to a free test if they have to wait more than 60 minutes after the appointment time before the  test begins.  Worth remembering. You will probably need to ask for a refund – the staff will probably not just offer it to you.

NCT Phone Number is 1890 412 413 -  (8am-8pm Mon-Thurs; 8am-6pm Friday)
You could also try this alternative number for NCT   01413 5992 – which will be included in your “free landline calls”  if you have such a deal  with your phone provider.

NCT Charter

A new nationwide car service booking website for Ireland – called Mycarservice.ie is being advertised a lot on the radio . It sounds like a good idea – you just enter the details of the make and model of your car as well as mileage and they give you a price for the work . You can get quotes for a small service or a full service as well as other work such as new brake pads or timing belt.
There are garages / service centres all over Ireland where you can choose to get the work done. The prices seem to be the same where ever you choose to get the work done . We selected a few different locations and the price for a service on the same make and model of car was the same in each one. My car Service take a €10  booking fee and you pay the balance to the garage.
Sample prices:

Full Service and front and rear brake pads on a 2008 car , 60,000km

Fiat Panda 1.2 Petrol   €390.93
Opel Zafira 1.6 petrol   €442.53
Citroen c4 2l Deisel    €476.88
Kia Ceed 1.6 deisel   €453.09

Sample Prices for Full Service Only

1.6 l Petrol  Citroen  C2  €242.06
Fat Panda 1.2l Petrol  €195.71
Fiat Punto 1.6l Petrol   €244.22
2l Ford Mondeo (Petrol) €272.73

There seem  to be service centres available in every Irish county -but some counties only had one or two. Hopefully the numbers will grow as the idea catches on. Not sure if paying the same price for a car service in Roscommon as in Dublin will go down well with Roscommon people?  (They might think it should be less. ) But having a standard nationwide price and a standard list of the work to be carried out should help avoid any “rip off” worries.

We didn’t actually use any of the garages on My Car Service for servicing – we just tried out the website and checked the prices.