Speaking ahead of Monday’s Assembly debate on waiting times for
MOTs, Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has emphatically ruled
out the privatisation of the service.
Minister O’Dowd said: “There have been calls for my
Department to adopt a similar vehicle testing model to that in
Britain, through a network of authorised garages. Let there
be no mistake, that is a call for privatisation of MOT services,
taking work and jobs away from our valued public servants, I will
never support that approach.
“The existing legislative framework here rightly does not provide
for vehicle tests to be conducted at private garages. The
disaggregated private sector test model is unique to Britain,
with most European nations favouring a public sector delivery
model either delivered by public servants as in the North, or
through a contracted authority as in the South.
“In Britain as well as being more expensive at nearly £55, MOT
fraud is an issue of concern to the DVSA, so much so that they
dedicate part of their official web site to how they expend
effort tackling the issue. This would mean people could get
a MOT certificate without ever getting their car tested,
resulting in unsafe cars on our roads.
“ Driver Vehicle Agency (DVA) staff are working extremely hard to
reduce waiting times through increasing its capacity with nearly
1.2m MOT test carried out in the last financial year, the most
ever in a single year.
“I will be making announcements in the Assembly on further
measures to alleviate waiting times and have asked officials to
bring forward other options for my urgent consideration, however
privatisation is ruled out.”
