THE CHIEF OPERATIONS Officer of the National Car Testing Service (NCT) told an Oireachtas committee today that the service will “revisit” its decision to go cashless if the government forces them to accept cash.
During a meeting of the Transport and Communications committee today, Brendan Walsh, the COO of the RSA said if accepting cash becomes a requirement, the service will work to make sure it meets the obligation.
This comes after The Irish Independent reported this morning that the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath had written to all public bodies to ensure they continue to accept cash as legal tender.
Walsh said he had heard the news, read the article and gave certainty that the service would meet the obligations, if they are mandated to do so.
The NCT signed a contract with the operator of the service, Applus+, which allowed for a move to a cashless service in the future the COO detailed.
The agreement, which was signed before Walsh took over the role in 2022, could create some difficulty between the governing body and operator to assure the service accepts cash.
Walsh said: “However, in relation to offering a cashless service, if we are mandated, we’d have to revisit it because it is in the contract that we’ve entered into with Applus+…”
The service attempted to move to cashless payments in August, announcing the decision on its social media channels, however the move was quickly shot down by Minister of State for the Department of Transport Jack Chambers who said the service would not be changing.
“My officials in the Department of Transport have discussed this matter with the RSA and despite a social media announcement by Applus earlier in the week there has been no process or arrangement for the introduction of changes to the NCT payment system agreed,” Chambers said in August.
According to the article in the Irish Independent newspaper today detailed that McGrath is attempting to prevent public bodies from operating on a cashless only system.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin told The Journal today in New York that he believes all citizens should have the option to pay by cash when using state services must be kept.
“Society evolves, technologies evolve, but you can come down in a premature way and say to people that ‘Its this is the way or no other way’. That causes distress and there’s no need for that,” Martin said.
Applus+ said in August that they were still in discussions with the RSA about the decision and that said that the move would allow them to have a “more effective” service.
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