Over 50 new MoT lifts will be operational by July, confirms Mallon
THE Infrastructure Minister has confirmed 52 vehicle lifts purchased following the cancellation of almost 43,000 MoT tests in Northern Ireland will be fully operational by mid-July.
However, temporary exemption certificates will likely have to be extended for some waiting for a test, Nichola Mallon said.
Tens of thousands of test appointments have been cancelled since cracks were found in lifts at Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) test centres throughout Northern Ireland last month.
Ms Mallon said the new lifts were purchased “under an accelerated programme” and will be installed from next month after a massive programme of cancellations caused chaos across Northern Ireland.
“It will have a continued impact on motorists,” said the minister, who added she is also taking legal advice on how to extend the exemption certificates currently held by motorists from four to six months.
“We can extend them for a further two months. I have requesthow ed legal advice if it was necessary to give a further exemption.”
She said she has sought a detailed work programme on where and when lifts are being installed and how many motorists are being affected.
“What I’m continuing to do is to make sure I am going in detail through all of the options, so that whatever we need to do, we are prepared for and that I can communicate that to the public at the earliest opportunity,” she said.
Ms Mallon said she is still waiting on an audit report on the problems arose but that she had been in contact with the auditor about potential problems before purchasing the new lifts.
The DVA purchased the lifts using £1.8m of funds for new equipment held in reserve.
The minister said she will be implementing a more stringent lift inspection regime going forward.
“It wasn’t the frequency that was the difficulty,” she said.
“I think for me the inspection regime was inadequate, going forward this needs to be much more robust. The frequency of the recycling and the replacement of machinery I will leave to experts.”
Julie Thompson, deputy secretary at the Department for Infrastructure, said the new lifts will be better equipped to deal with the frequency of their usage.
“There’s been a change to the lift itself, additional layers have been put in place in the new models of the lift,” she said.
Ms Mallon said she is still considering the introduction of tests for vehicles every two years.
More information is available at www.nidirect.gov.uk/mot-latest