Ben Lowry: It would be madness to get rid of Northern Ireland’s publicly funded MOT system

After all, if you only are in the business of spending money, but never raising or justifying it, then it is much easier to evade hard decisions — indefinitely.

But even at Stormont, politicians every so often are forced to admit to Northern Ireland’s financial dependency, and to come up with ideas to reduce it.

Early 2011 was one such time, after the recently installed joint Tory-Lib Dem made clear that it was imposing austerity (ie financial responsibility) across the UK.

Some politicians began to converge on a stupid solution: privatising MOT tests to save public cash.

If that happened, then instead of going to government-run test centres, a car owner would go to a garage to get the road worthiness tests done, as happens in England and Wales. It is a very bad idea.

It would be privatising a sphere of public life where we should instead keep out any hint of profit.

Inevitably, garages that issue MOT certificates have a vested financial interest in telling vehicle owners they need to get work done.

Most car owners, like most computer owners or most homeowners, know nothing about the mechanics of cars (or computers or houses). So when they are told something needs to be done to their car (or computer or house) and that it will cost £X, they can only stand blinking at the person who is telling them so, because they do not have the expertise to know better.

In Great Britain there are said to be safeguards against this commercial incentive on the part of MOT garages to tell you that you need work done (when you don’t).

I make two observations in response. The first is an anecdote. The only time I needed an MOT in England, in the 1990s, I was told by an MOT approved garage in north London that I needed to spend hundreds of pounds on something that, in the end, after further research, I didn’t need done at all.

The second is a startling statistic that this newspaper carried on the front page some years ago.

In Great Britain, where cars were then first tested (in private garages) after three years on road that initial MOT was failed by 21.6% of cars.

In Northern Ireland, where cars are first tested after four years, the initial failure rate was a mere 10.3%.

Cars in the Province had a far higher pass rate than newer cars in Great Britain, despite the NI cars having a full extra year of usage and wear and tear than the GB ones.

Neil Greig, of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, told the News Letter: “This clearly shows there is something wrong with the system in Great Britain. It is failing cars at three years old that should be passed. The suspicion is that it is to get garages business.

“The system is supposed to be tightly controlled, but there are still legions of stories about people going to a garage and feeling that they have been ripped off.”

It would be madness to introduce that system into NI, replacing our rigorously impartial system, but some voices are calling for it due to the current MOT delays.

Stormont, which loves easy solutions, could axe our MOT centres.

For many years I have driven old but quality cars, including a Toyota and Honda. I find it a cost effective way to run a reliable car.

Some years ago, I asked an NI garage near where I then worked to tell me what it needed for MOT. They said it needed A, B, C, D, E done, cost £270. I didn’t have time to get a second opinion, said fine, and booked it in. But before I got the work done I was driving past a garage in Co Down that specialised in some of the things I was told I needed, so I stopped and said: “I’m due MOT, I think the car is OK but if you could just check A, B, C, D, E.”

The garage said A. B and C need done, not D and E. The estimated bill for the work plummeted. Baffled, I went to a trye-brake outfit and asked them to assess A, B, C. They said only A, B need done.

The total bill was only £70, not £270, so I cancelled the booking at the first garage, got the basic work done, booked an MOT, and passed.

This is not to imply that garages are fraudulent. They might, for example, be doing what sales folk call ‘selling up’ and advising you to get work done earlier than needed.

But getting second quotations is too time consuming, so latterly prior to an MOT I have just fixed basics – tyres, lights and brakes— then put the car through to see if it passes.

The vehicle is being assessed by an impartial adjudicator who has no vested interest in telling you whether or not it is roadworthy. If it fails then (rightly) you pay a re-test fee, which helps fund the system.

It is a good system, that we should keep.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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