John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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95. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the action he will take regarding the growing backlog of applications for approval from commercial vehicle body builders, relative to individual vehicles, to the National Standards Authority of Ireland; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the process is slow and cumbersome, and causing serious difficulty for the business sector involved; the number of approvals processed to date; the number waiting to be processed; the timeframe for each approval to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8376/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The number of approvals processed since January 1^st, 2014 is 971 across the four broad categories of vehicle approvals. As at the 20^thFebruary 2014 there were 166 outstanding applications to be processed.

The timeframe for approvals to be processed from submission of application to final approval ranges from 10 days in respect of disabled driver applications to 42 days for commercial vehicles.

The processing time is impacted by the level of technicality and number of applications coinciding with new vehicles registrations.

The NSAI has implemented an alternative service delivery model from January based on the outsourcing of technical resources to address the increased volume of approvals. Due to the technical nature of the approvals process specific induction and training is required.

The average days from application to approval are improving and the NSAI are aiming to reduce the backlog over the next 4-6 weeks with the target lead times of 10 days being achieved by the end of Q2. In this regard, I would urge companies to ensure that complete and accurate technical information is provided to allow NSAI to expedite the completion of the certification process.