Callely campaign against ‘boy racers’ scrapped

EX-JUNIOR Transport Minister Ivor Callely’s last campaign to take “boy racers” off the roads has been kicked to touch in an overhaul of the National Car Test system.

It is expected that despite his promises, tinted windows and double exhausts will not be banned in changes to the system to be announced later this week.

The Department of Transport says it will publish a new set of guidelines for NCT inspectors, which eliminate a number of anomalies from the system.

These will include the requirement to have the name of the county of registration printed in Irish on the number plate and the obligation for a full retest in the case of bald tyres.

Just four weeks before he resigned in controversial circumstances, Deputy Callely said that by January 2006 he planned to use the NCT system against boy racers.

He said at the time: “I am looking to put in place provisions to eliminate what is often referred to as ‘boy racers’ making alterations to cars.

“This means blackened windows, double exhaust pipes, additional noise and so on. I am quite keen to see this in place by January.”

He resigned three weeks before his January target and this week the Department of Transport will announce a reform of the NCT test without imposing sanctions on modified cars.

Alan Geary, who operates the dedicated sales website for modified cars www.fastlane.sc, says the changes suggested by the former minister for state were misplaced from the beginning.

He said: “The thing is that certain people are going to speed anyway, it doesn’t matter what type of car you drive or if your car is modified, I get overtaken by big cars all the time that are not modified.

“If the car has a body kit and if it stands out more, you are more likely to get caught speeding and you are more likely to get a heavier fine.

“It is all very well to make the relationship that if a car looks like it can go fast then it will go fast but that only works on theory and on paper.”

A Department of Transport spokeswoman said she could not comment on the details of the NCT changes in advance of the full report being released.