Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): I welcome back Alastair Peoples, Jeff McCartney, Dave Sheeran and Alan Murphy. Colleagues, thank you for coming back. It is disappointing that you have had to come back because we do not have a resolution to the issue, but it is an important one, so the Committee is pleased to welcome you today. I will hand over to you to make an opening statement.

Mr Alastair Peoples (National Franchised Dealers Association): OK, Chairman. I hope that we do not disappoint you with what we have to say.

Thank you for inviting us back, Chairman and members of the Committee. It is, however, with frustration and, indeed, a degree of exasperation that we sit before you today. We have seen little progress in finding a solution to the problem affecting the free flow of new vehicles in the United Kingdom.

Franchised dealers in Northern Ireland are facing nothing short of a generational challenge because of the post-Brexit arrangements and the Windsor framework. The serious, detrimental issues that we highlighted some months ago are having a critical effect, with dealers seriously considering job losses as they plan for next year.

Customers in Northern Ireland are experiencing reduced choice in new vehicles, with certain models no longer being available locally, and facing higher costs than in Great Britain. The situation affects not only customers and dealers but future investment in the sector. My colleagues will give evidence on the serious effect that it is having on their franchised dealerships.

Mr Dave Sheeran (Donnelly Group): It may be worth recapping where we are. We are heading towards a cliff edge in January, when the transition to GB national type approval (GBNTA) will be complete. The industry has effectively been transitioning in the past six months, so we are already seeing impacts in the market, some of which my colleagues will outline.

To summarise, because of the Windsor framework, the Northern Ireland market is no longer part of the UK internal automobile market. That is worth 2 million units a year. The market here is 45,000 units. We are in the EU for the purposes of type approval, as a requirement of the Windsor framework, to protect the EU internal market. In the year to date, 10 months into the year, six vehicles have moved from GB to the Republic of Ireland. The regulation is protecting a market of six units over a market of 45,000 units and excluding us from the UK internal market.

It may be worth touching on a couple of consequences that we highlighted would come. Benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax on certain vehicles — plug-in hybrids — is becoming a serious issue. Plug-in hybrids are an increasingly important part of the market, and Northern Ireland customers will pay higher benefit-in-kind tax as a result of higher CO2 calculations that are used by the EU for the same vehicle that is on sale in GB. The Government have signalled their intention to equalise that, but an intention does not help us take an order, because nobody will place an order until that intention becomes part of law. Intentions are no good for solving the problem. As a consequence, the cost of a monthly lease or a personal contract purchase (PCP), which is a financial agreement, is higher to a Northern Ireland consumer than to a GB consumer for the same vehicle.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): Do you have an average calculation for that differential?

Mr D Sheeran: It can vary from model to model. Jeff, you may have some information on that.

Mr Jeff McCartney (Charles Hurst): With the Land Rover brand, it varies by £60 a month on a Range Rover Sport, because that vehicle falls into a different benefit-in-kind band.

Mr D Sheeran: Taken over 36 months, that is a significant cost. We are starting to see that bite now.

The other thing that we said was that Northern Ireland's being such a small marketplace is, in effect, a barrier to entry for some of the new entrants to the UK market that are giving consumers more choice and more cost-competitive vehicles and making some great traction in the marketplace. At this point, a number of those brands have elected not to come to Northern Ireland, while some established brands will be looking at their volume in Northern Ireland and considering whether it is worth staying here.

We are coming to the point where the pain is starting to bite. In the marketplace, we are seeing, initially, that fleets have decided to source their vehicles for Northern Ireland consumers from GB dealers in many cases in order to work around the issue. Those vehicles would normally be supplied by our companies and others in the sector to consumers here. It is only a matter of time before the retail consumer gets into car tourism and decides that it is better to go and buy their car over there to get access to the full choice and full cost-competitive nature of the marketplace. We therefore find ourselves on the cliff at this stage, with seven weeks to fix the problem; otherwise, there will be an acceleration of the trends that we have already seen.

Alan, you may want to talk about some of that.

Mr Alan Murphy (Agnew Group): Thanks, Dave. Chair, I have just circulated a graph that covers the Northern Ireland retail registrations from January to October of this year. It compares the Northern Ireland performance in a retail registration market with that of the UK as a whole. Across those 10 months, the retail market in Northern Ireland is down by 6%. By comparison, the UK market is up by 5%. That has been more stark over recent months: since the guys were here in July, the market in Northern Ireland has gone down by 11%, and the UK equivalent market has gone up by 4%. We are starting to see this bite, as Dave mentioned. That is a trend in Northern Ireland's performance across the retail opportunity that seems to be continuing.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): Can you quantify that in value across the year? It is down by 6%, but what does that mean?

Mr Murphy: It is down by 6%. Quantitatively, that is about 1,500 registrations behind. Had we matched the UK's market, at this point, there would be 1,500 registrations. That could be £50 million of turnover, if you multiply a £35,000 vehicle by 1,500 registrations. It is that sort of number. The delta between us and the UK is not to be sniffed at. It has certainly got more challenging of late. In September, which is a big registration month, the UK was up 9%, and we were down 15%. That is a 24% delta in one stand-alone month. Certainly, we are seeing consumers vote with their feet on some of the choice aspect. Jeff has examples of the impacts on some manufacturers of late.

Mr McCartney: I will give you a bit of an insight into the way in which the retail market works. A lot of manufacturers build to order, but a lot of them just build because they have already planned for a certain number of vehicles to come into the UK. We explained that a little bit in detail before, but, if those vehicles are not sold, the brand will put certain customer offers on them, be it deposit contributions or customer savings. Customers in Northern Ireland cannot avail themselves of those, because those vehicles have been built with UK type approval, not EU type approval, and that is where we are seeing massive movement in the market. Alan laid out that it is 1,400 units — it is — but we can see that that delta is getting worse as the year goes on. We predicted that in July when we were here. We predicted it in January, when we met the Secretary of State.

We are now on a burning platform, because we will see more and more of that as we move into 2026. Our retail market is disappearing, and we are very concerned about it. We are at a cliff edge going into 2026 that we really need to bridge, and we need a decision quickly. From our point of view, it is wrong that our customers should be disadvantaged in any way. The figures bear out that that is happening as we speak. We are prevented from taking additional brands, because it takes longer to get type approval. The retail market that we are in today is disappearing in front of our eyes. We are very concerned, and that is why we are here today.

Mr D Sheeran: I will give another example. Vauxhall Corsa is the number-one selling small car in the UK. It is a big player here, in particular in the motability segment. We have not been able to take an order for that vehicle for three months, because the engine will not be compliant with EU type approval by the time that the vehicles arrive to be registered. There may be a solution some way down the line. However, we are locked out of that market for six months, whereas GB has full access to the market. Someone else may have picked up a sale on another brand, but the point is that, if all brands are affected, there is a delta.

Mr McCartney: Vauxhall is a perfect example. Both Dave's organisation and mine represent the Vauxhall brand. If we pick out that brand alone, which is a big player in the market, we can see that, in the UK, its retail sales in the year to date are up 16%, whereas, in Northern Ireland, they are down 59%. It is massive. The gap is getting wider and wider as the year progresses. As I said, those are some of the concerns that we have.

I go back to some of the information that Dave mentioned. On the threat of vehicles going into the EU — ie the Republic of Ireland — there have been six so far this year, but our market is disappearing in front of our eyes. We are very concerned.

Mr Murphy: There is a very obvious solution to this. This appears to be quite pragmatic and simplistic to us as operators: we need to extend the GB national type approval so that we can register vehicles in Northern Ireland to allow Northern Ireland consumers to have the same choice as the UK market as a whole.

Mr D Sheeran: The Government have signalled that they are minded to align with the EU rules to get the manufacturers to comply. The Government should not be surprised that manufacturers have complied with the rules that they put in place for GBNTA. GBNTA is the only solution. Whether the UK aligns to the EU rules in the future is somewhat irrelevant, if the GBNTA applies and the manufacturers adhere to those rules. We need to be in the UK internal market, not in some hybrid market that does not exist.

Mr Peoples: You have now heard first-hand the calamitous effect of the issue on Northern Ireland dealerships.

The Department for Transport's Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) has said:

Indeed, the Secretary of State has said something very similar. This is a ludicrous situation that those whom we have engaged with in the Government here and in London realise must be resolved. As my colleagues have said, a change in legislation will take time. What we, as an industry, need now is an extension of the transition timeline to bridge the point where EU and GB standards can be fully aligned, giving the industry a pause to urgently get a workable plan in place. We need to know, Committee, that you will do everything that you can to make that happen.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): Thank you very much, Alastair.

I will start. On your engagement with the UK Government, the Secretary of State wrote to the Committee following your first appearance. You met the Secretary of State in January last year, is that correct?

Mr Peoples: January 2025.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): OK. Have you had no further interaction or discussion?

Mr Peoples: No, although Gavin Robinson, of the Northern Ireland Select Committee, raised it. As a result of getting caught out on that, the Secretary of State has asked for further and urgent work to be done. It is very easy to see this as a small problem when you are sitting in London, but here it is clearly a major issue.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): To reflect on the record and the importance of the sector, both in financial transactions and employment levels, you employ in all communities right across Northern Ireland. What does the industry represent currently in numbers of employees?

Mr Murphy: It is in the paper: 17,000.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): It does not take a genius to work it out: fewer sales, less income, fewer staff.

I will open it up to my colleague Jonathan Buckley, who has been to the fore on the issue.

Mr Buckley: Thank you very much for coming to the Committee again. This has disaster written all over it. It also blows gaping holes in what some of us have been saying for some time. The myth and the concept of dual market access is nothing, when it comes to how this may impact on dealerships in Northern Ireland. The most startling aspect of your presentation — I have been pushing on this for some time — is that we have the proclaimed desire to protect the EU market, into which only six vehicles are entering, when, in fact, the real challenge is that there are probably a lot more sales from GB into the Republic of Ireland and protecting those traders.

I will focus on the specifics, because it is important that we put it into context. There is a real-world impact. Some 17,600 jobs pertain to your dealerships in the Northern Ireland economy. What do job losses look like, if the issue is not sorted and we go over the cliff in January? Has there been planning for that in your respective dealerships?

Mr McCartney: We have not planned for it. We are hoping against hope that the issue will be sorted out. The last thing that we want is to start making some of our people redundant. We have had to train them for years to get that experience. The last thing that we want to do is to go down the road of job losses. Inevitably that will happen and will have to be modelled into our budget programme. However, we are here today. We have spoken to the Secretary of State and to some of you individually. We hope that this can be sorted out, because we see it as being a simple fix. When you see something as being such a simple fix, why would you plan for disaster? That is where we are today.

Mr Buckley: I want to put it again in context. The Government have gone to great lengths in the United Kingdom to support the UK car industry. We have seen that with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and others. Am I right in saying that British car brands, such as Vauxhall and JLR, will see the greatest impact of the loss of GB type approvals, which will result in Northern Ireland consumers paying more? Is that statement correct? Will the impact primarily be faced by those industries that the UK Government are committed to trying to support in the UK?

Mr McCartney: Do you mean UK brands selling vehicles into Northern Ireland?

Mr Buckley: Yes.

Mr McCartney: Absolutely. To go down the list of manufacturers that have already opted, even at this early stage, for single type approval, we have Renault, Nissan, Land Rover, Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroën and Maserati, and others will join, because, if they have a commercial advantage in the market, why would the rest of the brands not do exactly that? We have a huge list at this stage, and we feel that that will only get greater as time goes on.

Mr D Sheeran: We are already seeing brands that are dual approved; technically, the car can be registered in either jurisdiction. With plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), they have decided on dual approval for the majority, but a couple of the PHEVs will be single approval. As we said before, we are already seeing the fragmentation of dual approval. The GBNTA allows some lower standards than the EU, and they are going to take advantage of that.

Mr Buckley: That is where the smokescreen is from the Secretary of State in saying that the issue has been sorted. When I read your briefing, I became very aware that, while some of the manufacturers may claim dual approval to begin with, it is the point at which the car leaves the factory that they decide which scheme to register it under. That is where the point of pressure comes.

On that point, what brands are particularly hit when it comes to accessing the Northern Ireland market?

Mr McCartney: Are you talking about new brands or existing brands?

Mr Buckley: I am talking about new brands. You mentioned Vauxhall Corsa. Are there any other particular models or makes?

Mr McCartney: All those brands that I mentioned are single type approval brands. They are not dual approving.

Mr Buckley: The Secretary of State told us:

Is it a minority, or is it the case that, while there may be more dual approving, when it comes to registration from the factory, however, they are single approval? Am I right in that?

Mr McCartney: You absolutely are. Those brands that I talked about do not represent the minority in the market. They are big players in the Northern Ireland and UK market.

Mr D Sheeran: More of the dual approvers will reserve their right to single approve either completely or selectively. What we are seeing now is that they are selectively tailoring vehicles to the GB market to compete with those that have gone with the GB single type approval. The industry is complying with the law, but the law is open to interpretation.

Mr Buckley: You mentioned other brands, such as Renault, Citroën and Peugeot, which are not dual approving. BMW is making cars dual approved, but they are still designated as EU or GB when they leave the factory.

Mr Murphy: That is for a small proportion of PHEVs. Competitively, that marketplace has a very high reliance on the BIK percentage that is generated by the vehicle. To compete in that market in the GB market as a whole, which is where the lion's share of the business is going — NI is just 2% of the UK market as a whole — a bit of collateral damage is almost fine. Some pockets of stock are being specifically retained for GB type approval because they feel that that gives them the competitive advantage in the GB market as a whole.

Mr Buckley: Your industry, it seems to me, has a growing number of canaries in the coal mine. You have been warning about a cliff edge and the impact on your industry, and the UK Government and, particularly, the Secretary of State, by his actions or inaction, have essentially caused trade diversion and harm to GB manufacturers supplying into Northern Ireland.

That brings me on to the point about the worst of all worlds. I read in your briefing that you cannot send cars back to GB in the event of overstocking. You cannot access GB stock to meet customer demand; for example, if somebody wants a black car or a white car. That was the example that you used. Therefore, how do you plan your business? I imagine that it is common that there is overstock or customer demand. How will you deal with that if the issue is not addressed?

Mr McCartney: It is very difficult to plan. We will plan based on our annual sales plan. The biggest issue is the type of market. I mentioned that it is a very tactical market. When the brands build vehicles, they are not building them to Northern Ireland type approval. Therefore, let us say that Vauxhall has a cohort of vehicles — a load of Grandland vehicles — sitting in the UK that it has not sold, it will put a special offer on those vehicles. We cannot take them, but the rest of the UK takes them. That is where you see the difference: there is an increase in the UK market, but we are not running at the same pace.

Mr Buckley: That is the specific example of the new Vauxhall model, for which there was a 35% offering that pertained only to GB and that could not apply to Northern Ireland. That essentially —.

Mr McCartney: It applied to Northern Ireland. We could do it, but we could not take the vehicles, because they were not type approved for Northern Ireland. We had access to the same offer, but we could not take the vehicle, so our customers did not then benefit from that saving.

Mr Buckley: As the Chair mentioned, these are more complex areas of your business, and we need a wee bit more understanding of them: complications with benefits in kind; and taxation issues. How big a segment of your business model are those, and who do they apply to? Will you spell that out for us? I think that that is a technical point that not many people will understand. When we look at the broadsheet, we might see that Northern Ireland business customers, or maybe even those in the public sector, are being disadvantaged through forms of taxation that, ultimately, shrink the marketplace.

Mr McCartney: Absolutely. Dave can explain the taxation part. The fleet market that you allude to represents 27% of all the cars that are sold in Northern Ireland.

Mr Buckley: Is that 27% of all cars that are sold?

Mr McCartney: Yes, 27% of all cars that are sold in Northern Ireland are sold through the fleet channel; 33% of all private cars are sold through the private channel; and 40% of the market is Motability. That is how the market in Northern Ireland is made up, so the fleet sector is a significant part of our business.

Mr Buckley: Do the fleet and vehicles with benefit-in-kind tax include those in public-sector bodies, such as the Department of Health or other Departments, that access vehicles through that model?

Mr Murphy: Salary sacrifice is a common channel that falls under the fleet market as a whole. Lots of businesses, as well as public bodies, offer salary sacrifice schemes to support their employees. They effectively pay a benefit-in-kind tax on a vehicle through that channel. That is how that scheme works. With the changes in EU-type approval, that benefit-in-kind level is expected to jump quite significantly in a number of models. That will definitely impact the demand for those vehicles through those channels as well.

Mr D Sheeran: It specifically relates to the plug-in hybrids and something called the utility factor, which is used to calculate CO2 emissions. A new EU test or formula is to be applied that, compared with when the GBNTA formula is applied, generates higher CO2 figures for the same vehicles. The same vehicle can fall below or above the threshold for tax. It pushes more vehicles into the higher tax threshold, so brands such as BMW decided to opt for a GBNTA approval for certain vehicles, as it keeps them under that tax threshold. Plug-in hybrids are an increasingly important aspect of the market as manufacturers try to meet their ZEV mandate obligations. It is a growing segment. The Government have said, "We are minded to equalise that tax inequality"; however, being "minded" to do something does not help you when you ask someone to place an order. If you say, "The tax might be this or that", they will say, "I will wait" or, "I will buy something else where the tax is clear".

Mr Buckley: This is a final question from me, because I know that others want to come in. I want to talk about the solutions that you suggested. There is an obvious one, which is not a solution but a bridging post, and that is the extension to the transition period for derogation. That is a very low-level ask. That should have been guaranteed, given the fact that such a cliff edge is now presenting.

You stressed, and you were right to do so, that from a car-manufacturing perspective, it is essential for the Northern Ireland marketplace to be firmly within the UK internal market in the long term. That is where your supply chain is. There is no threat to the EU market from that. I find that interesting. Lord Murphy recently completed a review for which the European Union refused to even interact with him on the issues. Those points go to the heart of the matter, because, at the moment, it is very easy to tell which vehicles come through GB/NI into the Republic of Ireland. There is a very definitive way of finding that out. The potential for contamination, as such, of the EU market is extremely limited. Would I be right in that assessment?

Mr McCartney: Yes.

Mr D Sheeran: Yes.

Mr Murphy: Yes.

Mr Buckley: You mentioned that taking Northern Ireland back to where it should be, which is within the UK internal market for type approvals, is essentially the only real long-term solution to saving the industry here, securing jobs and ensuring that our consumers are not put at an economic disadvantage compared with those in GB. You mentioned that that has been done for other aspects of the Windsor framework, such as VAT arrangements for second-hand cars. Will you elaborate on how you see that as a long-term solution and how achievable it is?

Mr D Sheeran: The VAT issue was maybe an unintended consequence of the Brexit crossover. The way in which the regulation was written meant that we would pay VAT on top of the price for a vehicle that had VAT in it when it was brought into Northern Ireland. The Government stepped in within days, saying, "We're going to sort this problem out. Carry on as you were. We will give you the air cover" — if that is the right expression — "for that while we sort the solution out". It took them probably six months to put the solution in place, and it works fine. That has restored the normal VAT environment that we enjoyed pre-Brexit. There is precedent for getting temporary cover whilst a longer-term solution is sorted out.

If the longer-term solution is GB aligning to the EU standards, that would solve 90% of the problem, but you would still have problems with timing as regulations cut across and derogation periods. The real solution is this: we are in the UK market, so the manufacturers represent themselves by saying, "This is the UK product offer". However, they now have to consider presenting a slimmed-down product offer for Northern Ireland, because it will apply only to certain vehicles. That does not make sense to anybody. On the day that the vehicle is registered, it can move anywhere — north, south, east or west — irrespective of its type approval. I am not sure whether, if someone asked the question, there would be too much objection to the solution, but the Government seem reluctant to ask.

Mr Buckley: OK. If we look at the very short term, we see that the derogation ends in January — we are now in November — and, if that is not extended, your companies will inevitably have to restructure, which could, ultimately, result in job losses. We are hearing that from you loud and clear. Is that a firm position?

Mr D Sheeran: If it pans out, yes.

Mr Buckley: Thank you for your time. Thanks, Chair, for your indulgence.

Mr Honeyford: I have been quoted so many times since I said this, so I will say it again for absolute clarity: we have the worst of every world. That is disgraceful — we never wanted any borders or barriers — and, at this late stage, it is incredible. You talked about reluctance in the UK Government. Why are they reluctant?

Mr McCartney: We are not too sure. There just seems to be a reluctance to go to the EU to ask for what we need. They are trying to get the manufacturers to dual approve, which the manufacturers are not happy about doing. You would need to ask the Secretary of State about that.

Mr Honeyford: OK. I have two questions. Are costs involved in dual approval? What is behind the reluctance about dual approval?

Mr Peoples: I suspect that it is about a lack of real understanding of the issue, its impact and what the solution should be. If the Secretary of State were to get into the same level of detail as we have with the Committee to understand the issue, what he could do might be more of a burning question. Lots of these issues come to the Committee every day; this is just the latest one. We have found solutions for bringing bacon in and for all sorts of other issues, so it should not be beyond the power of possibility for minds to get around this one to find a workable solution. Everybody realises that it is a problem, and everybody wants to fix it, so the people in power need to put some brainpower into it and come up with a solution for us.

Mr Honeyford: OK. Let us go back to dual approval. Does that involve costs for the manufacturer?

Mr McCartney: Are you talking about why a brand does not want to be dual approved?

Mr Honeyford: Yes.

Mr McCartney: Yes, it does. When I was previously at the Committee, I gave the example of the general safety regulation that came in for Europe but included things that you did not have to do for the UK, meaning that a brand could make a saving by not type approving but putting into the vehicle exactly what the EU wanted. That is where there is a divergence in some safety standards, so why would brands type approve for the EU when there is a model that they can type approve for the UK at lower cost?

Mr Honeyford: Is that because they are physically building a different model of car?

My next question is this: why, when the industry sells its products, do you not talk directly to the manufacturers? Is that happening?

Mr McCartney: Sorry, what is your question?

Mr Honeyford: You talked about dual approval and a lack of information about it on the part of the Government. Is any work being done by you, as the brand reps here, if you like, to deal with and talk to the brands directly, or is their building a simple model just down to cost?

Mr McCartney: We have appealed for dual approval for the brands that we represent, but there is a UK-type approval scheme that is law, which they are perfectly entitled to type approve to the UK standard, and that is what they are doing. It lies with the Government. The Government need to change to EU-type approval. Apparently, there is a willingness to do so, but there is always a lag. Previously, when there was EU-type approval, in the UK, it just happened. Since Brexit, it happens at a different pace in the UK than it does in the EU. Sometimes they will not follow the EU standard, so that is where the problem has come from.

Mr Honeyford: Why was January the last time that you were with the Secretary of State? Is he not engaging?

Mr Peoples: The Secretary of State did right in saying that he recognised what the problem is. I think that he said that officials would be looking into it. They are still looking into it. We met officials from the Department for Transport and the Vehicle Certification Agency. We are kind of pushing against an open door in that we all understand that there is an issue that we really want to fix but nobody is fixing it. As Jeff said, if you give the manufacturers a commercial opportunity to build to a different spec and sell that model cheaper, they are going to do it regardless of what the Secretary of State wishes.

Mr Honeyford: It is economics for the manufacturers, I suppose.

Mr Peoples: Absolutely.

Mr Honeyford: This is the last question from me. What do you want us to do? What can we do to help?

Mr Peoples: That is what we would like you to tell us. This is not a devolved issue, but it seems that we have a lot of interest around this table. We are not getting the same level of understanding or commitment to do something from those who are actually responsible for it, so we would like you to tell us what you can do for us or what more we can do.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): From my perspective, and we will sum these points up at the end, there are probably a number of things that we can do. The first is for the Committee to send in writing a pretty strong message to Nick Thomas–Symonds, the UK Cabinet Minister responsible for EU relations, calling for an immediate extension, agreed or unilateral, of the derogation process for at least another year. Moving on to my second point, that would then give the Committee an opportunity to contact the Secretary of State and make clear that the issue has not been resolved as he claimed and that, as the Northern Ireland representative at Cabinet level, he needs to be very clear that he will meet you urgently and will say what work he is doing to progress the issue in order to get a long-term solution. Finally, the Committee could ask the UK internal market guarantee panel to launch an inquiry into this issue. That panel is a UK Government agency that was set up under 'Strengthening the UK Union', and its work and responsibility is to ensure that there is a flow of goods and services right across the internal market. That is my view, coming from where I am, but, obviously, colleagues will have different views.

Ms D Armstrong: It is good to see you here again. I am sorry that the problem still exists. I see the threat that is coming down the line. We touched briefly on Motability cars, so I am curious to know what impact this is having on those. Reportedly, 50% of new car sales in Northern Ireland are Motability cars.

Mr Peoples: It is 40% this year to date.

Ms D Armstrong: That is good to know; thank you. How does this matter impact on that sector in terms of supply and cost?

Mr D Sheeran: It mirrors the retail market. There will be a longer lead-in time if you have to order the vehicles to a specific spec and type approval. Some vehicles and models under the Motability scheme that have preferential rates or cheaper acquisition for those who avail themselves of the scheme may not be available for order for consumers in Northern Ireland.

Ms D Armstrong: Could that create a sense of discrimination against disabled people? Could that argument be used?

Mr Murphy: We would not be slagging, but that could clearly be an unintended consequence.

Mr D Sheeran: It is about choice. If someone wants a particular vehicle that might not be available, they might have to access a different one that is available, and there may be a cost difference in that for them.

Ms D Armstrong: We have seen extensions being given in the cases of veterinary medicines and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) products. Your argument on looking for more extensions is worth pursuing. I support what the Chair said about interventions and what we can do as a Committee. I hope that that can yield some results. Thank you.

Ms Nicholl: Thank you so much for your evidence. I was not here when you were at the Committee previously. You have made a compelling case, and I am so sorry that you are still going through this. The Chair wrote to the Secretary of State previously, and he responded. All that I was going to say was that I completely support the cause that we make representations. That is all that we, or any other party with Members of Parliament at Westminster, can do to advocate on that side.

The Chair listed three key points. Are you content for us to take those forward, as a Committee? If anything else is sitting with you that you would like us to do, let us know.

Mr D Sheeran: That would be —. [Inaudible.]

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): There is a debate in the House of Lords next week on the issue. Lord Dodds might have been in contact with a number of you about that already.

Mr McCartney: He has been, yes.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): Sinéad, I apologise. Did you want in?

Ms McLaughlin: No, I am fine. I am happy with your recommendations, and I am glad that those on the panel are content to move forward in that way. I am sorry that they are in this space and that progress has been really slow. I am sure that they feel as though everybody has left them behind or that they are not being prioritised. It is important that we hear them again and see what we can do to get their voices heard in order to overcome some of those barriers.

The Chairperson (Mr Brett): Thank you very much, Sinéad. Thank you for that, colleagues. Hopefully, we will have responses quite soon. We will be in touch with you.

Mr Peoples: Thank you.