The public will inevitably be inconvenienced over the recall of vehicles with faulty Takata airbags, but this is the price of safety, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said on Friday.

Speaking to CyBC, the minister said it could not be permissible for thousands of vehicles with dangerous components to be in circulation.

“The matter of how dangerous a recalled component is rests solely with the manufacturers, they are the only ones who know its extent. If they have declared a component dangerous it is dangerous,” the minister said.

Discussions over how to handle the problematic airbag recalls had been postponed until Monday next week, after a debate involving the House transport committee and the plenum, which reviewed various alternatives on Thursday.

The timeframe allotted to car owners for replacement of components before their vehicle must be immobilised had meanwhile been extended from an initial three months to one year.

This, however, was later amended with a clause whereby the ministry now has the right to issue decrees granting extensions, Vafeades confirmed.

The official start of the countdown for recalls based on the new legislation had also been pushed from January to February 2025.

Vafeades defended the role of his ministry and the department of road transport, saying that for one month they had been discussing the issue intensively and that it was an international one, not limited to Cyprus.

The matter is to be rediscussed and put to vote by the plenum on Monday amid charges by MPs that proposals were being submitted piecemeal and last-minute and that the executive was at fault for the scrambling, as it ought to have regulated the matter much sooner.