Getting a ticket machine for the airport car park that accepts Manx coins has been ‘impossible’, says the infrastructure minister.

In the House of Keys sitting on Tuesday, Tim Crookall was asked by Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse if the option of using pay and display units in the car parks at Ronaldsway had been considered.

Mr Crookall said: ‘I know there’s an issue concerning being able to pay with cash.

‘Cash payments are disappearing from ticket machines.

‘Trying to get hold of a machine that accepts Manx coins and not UK coins is impossible now because obviously the machines are made across and they don’t accept the Manx coins over there so there is a difficulty with that, so we are getting away from paying with cash.’

The Manx £1 coin is now a different shape to the UK version.

The plan is for motorists to use a mobile phone application to pay to park.

The minister added that if the app doesn’t work well, things could be changed, saying: ‘If we need to change it in 12 months or 24 then we can at very little cost.’

But he felt it was a ‘good system that will work’.

It comes after the Department of Infrastructure saw a loss of around £50,000 a month as a result of broken barriers at the entrance. The DoI collected £1,154 in parking fees in 2021, compared to the first three months of 2020 when the car parks brought in more than £127,000.

Mr Crookall also said that no parking tickets had been given out since the barrier had broken.

In a written answer to Juan Watterson’s query on when car parking charges will be reintroduced, he said that one hours free parking with parking discs would be reintroduced. He said the app would ‘improve service to the customer and provide a number of benefits with a corresponding reduction in risks’.

In relation to the new app, Mr Crookall previously told the Isle of Man Examiner: ‘You’ll get the app up, put your card number in, and then just say when you’re clocking in, when you have to clock out, and when you go it gives you 24 hours to pay like you do across.

‘It would also give you that opportunity if you’re delayed or anything like that you can extend it and all sorts of things.’

He also confirmed at least one cash machine option would be available, as ‘not everybody uses mobile apps, so we’ll have to cater for that as well’. The aim is for the machines to be installed in the next four to five weeks.