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Irish test stations re-open after strike
Page 18
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THE STRIKE that has shut nine of Northern Ireland's 15 vehicle testing centres for the past three months is over.
Suspending the action, John Corey, general secretary of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance, says: "We are also prepared to listen to concerns about the impact of continuing the MoT strike — unlike Direct Rule Ministers, who caused this dispute and are prolonging it by their intransigence and who did not care about the disruption to the Northern Ireland public."
The dispute caused chaos, with a backlog of 100,000 vehicles waiting to be tested.
"There's going to be a massive queue for commercial vehicles to be tested," according to Damien Maguire, director of AM Transport in Carrickfergus. "I don't know another industry that can just close down and retain its customer base. "1 realise the government is not going to scrap the system," he adds. "If they [testing centres] were to compete on a depot-by-depot basis, the better could prosper and the less efficient could be closed."
"This dispute showed up a lot of weaknesses in the current system," says Tom Wilson, regional manager of the Freight Transport Association."We are still in favour of privatisation or franchising out."
Phil Flanders, regional director of the Road Haulage Association, says he is glad the strike is over: "There have been no vehicles tested for three months.A lot of people's plans have been thrown out of kilter."