Northern Ireland has a superior MOT system to Great Britain, so it is good to learn that it is back on track

Northern Ireland is far too reliant on the public sector, right across society.

Public money is completely dominant in our economy, and local politicians clamour for ever more.

There is precious little movement towards reform of the public sector and bolstering of the private sector to alter the balance of service provision in favour of the latter.

Yet there is a respect in which state service provision in NI works well, or if not well then better than the private alternative: MOT tests.

These road worthiness tests are essential to keeping our highways safe, yet in Great Britain they are done in private garages. This can create an incentive for the said garages to exaggerate the amount of work that is needed on a car before it is deemed fit for continuing usage.

In NI, however, we have a rigorous system of testing centres which assess the car independent of any private interests. You might think that your car failed because your examiner was over zealous. You might even wonder if he or she was harsher because they did not like the look of you. But you cannot think you were failed because the tester wanted your business.

However, the NI MOT system has at different points over the years been subject to delays that make it hard to a book a test in time for your road worthiness certificate’s renewal date. A recent upgrade of the booking system did not help.

One of the worst such delays to testing has been caused by Covid. The slowdown in testing capacity during lockdown was alleviated by a temporary extension in the time interval between mandatory tests from one year to two.

The testing system is now said to be back to normal.

This is good because had it been thrown badly out of kilter, resulting in permanent delays, it might have brought our sound MOT procedures unfairly into disrepute, leading to a clamour for GB’s inferior private system.

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