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In Northern Ireland, the Department of Infrastructure\u2019s Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) is responsible for conducting the roadworthiness testing of all vehicles which use public roads.<\/p>\n
Unlike in Great Britain, the tests in Northern Ireland are conducted in dedicated MOT centres throughout Ulster.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Independent Garage Association (IGA) has warned that a move to testing every two years would “inevitably” leave more unsafe vehicle on the road.<\/p>\n
Its chief executive, Stuart James said that while most backed a move to biennial testing, many did not understand the safety implications of such a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is interesting to read that while 85 per cent of individual respondents are in favour of introducing biennial testing for private cars, most did not provide a reason for this support and believe that it would have no impact on road safety,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK government has proposed changing the period before a car\u2019s first MOT test to four years on two previous occasions, and plans were scrapped both times for being too dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cStatistics show that around one in five vehicles currently do not meet minimum safety standards at any one time in NI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the time between MOT tests was extended, more unsafe vehicles would inevitably be on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cSafety should always come first and if biennial testing was approved in NI it would set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the UK,” James added.<\/p>\n
Sue Robinson, chief executive of Northern Ireland’s National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) said that while the MOT backlog needs to be addressed “urgently”, a move away from the current 4-1-1 testing regime would “significantly undermine road safety”, causing “further issues in the long term”. <\/p>\n
There were a total of 1,224 responses to the DfI’s Call for Evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northern Ireland is set to take \u201cthe next steps\u201d on a move to introduce biennial (every two years) MOT testing, Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":31838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[654,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-news","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n