Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to be able to reply to my constituency colleague, Deputy Bobby Aylward. The National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, operates as the approval authority for related directives, 2007/46/EC, under the European Communities (Road Vehicles: Entry into Service) Regulations (S.I 157 of 2009) made by the then Minister for Transport, which requires that all member states have national approval schemes implemented through to October 2014.

The automotive approvals process relies heavily on technically competent assessors to process the applications. Applications for certification are processed by the NSAI on a first come, first served basis. Since the beginning of the year, the NSAI has received 3,108 individual vehicle approval, IVA, applications, of which it has completed 2,843. As of 9 July 2015, 196 files are being processed and these have been in process for an average of 3.5 weeks.

In response to the increasing workload, the NSAI tendered in 2014 for an alternative service delivery, which commenced from January 2015 with Applus for the provision of technical assessors. Owing to the regulatory and technical nature of the assessment process, it was not possible to increase processing capacity rapidly as the sourcing, training and induction of engineers takes a period of approximately six months before they become competent in the approvals process. In addition, staff training reduces the time spent on processing. While the addition of new resources was necessary to address the backlog, in the initial stages this is disruptive and impacts on the existing resource as training is necessary.

In addition to resources issues, the processing times also reflect the technical nature of the approvals process itself, the unavoidable requirement on industry to build in an adequate provision for the automotive approvals timescale and the registrations cycle for new vehicles, which are in January and mid-year. However, with regard to the three companies in the Carlow-Kilkenny area which have applications in process, I am informed by the NSAI that company A currently has no outstanding applications; company B has submitted 35 applications since January this year, of which 24 have been approved and 11 are in the process of approval. A number of applications are awaiting responses to queries which need to be addressed before the approval can be completed; and company C has submitted 79 applications since January this year, of which 64 applications have been processed and 15 are awaiting processing. Again, there are queries which need to be addressed before approval is completed.

Approvals of a number of outstanding applications have not been completed as a result of queries from the NSAI to the applicants about the applications. This can cause long delays as application forms must be fully completed before being processed. Another contributing factor is the delay in separate approvals processes for different types of commercial vehicles which is outside the control of the NSAI. Against this background, I encourage companies to inquire directly with the NSAI about the progress of their applications. In this context, the NSAI has been working with individual companies experiencing pressure points to prioritise applications, according to the company's needs.

I will supply the remainder of the reply to the Deputy if he wishes as it deals with some technical issues.

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