Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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18. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he is aware of the delays in obtaining approval from the National Standards Authority of Ireland for products produced at a company (details supplied); and if he is aware that this company is losing exports to the UK due to the six-week wait for a compliance certificate from the NSAI. [28671/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The responsibility for the EU Directive 2007/46/EC governing motor vehicles type approvals lies with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and its Agency, the Road Safety Authority. The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) is the Irish approval authority for this and related Directives.

Since the beginning of the year NSAI received 3108 Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) applications and has completed 2843. As of 9 July 2015, 196 files are in the processing system. The average number of weeks that these applications have been in process is 3.5 weeks.

35 applications were received from the company in question since January 2015. 24 of these have now 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 approval can be completed.

The processing time reflects the technical nature of the approvals process, the increased registration of new vehicles at the start of the year and at the mid-year registration cycle and, in that context, the requirement on industry to build in an adequate provision for the automotive approvals timescale. Applications for certification are processed by the NSAI on a first come, first served basis.

In response to the increasing workload, the NSAI tendered in 2014 for an Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) through the provision of external technical assessors, which commenced from January 2015.

Due to the regulatory and technical nature of the assessment process, it was not possible to rapidly increase processing capacity as the sourcing, training and induction of engineers takes a period of approximately 6 months before they become competent in the approvals process.

In recent weeks, NSAI have introduced a new IT system to help manage applications and workloads. The new system will allow tracking of applications through all stages of the application phase to final completion of approval. In addition, the NSAI is carrying out training of appointed test centres (or ATC's) – as agreed with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Roads Safety Authority - in order that they can work closely with applicants to clarify the test and inspection requirements which are leading to delays in processing approvals.

By the end of October, the NSAI expects to operate consistently to the two weeks target that the NSAI has set for all vehicle categories and sustain it thereafter, with the possible exception of the January/February surge of new certification applications.

It is important to remember that when incomplete application forms are queried by the NSAI, this can cause long delays in processing times. Another contributing factor is the delay in separate approvals processes for different types of commercial vehicles which is outside the NSAI's control. It is therefore important that companies stay in regular contact and work closely with the NSAI regarding their applications and any queries arising.