Tuesday, February 02, 2010
NONE of the motorists who deluged newspapers recently with letters about potholes caused by the extreme weather think road-users should pay for the repairs, assuming the money comes from some magic pot of gold, or that it will be diverted from other government expenditure such as healthcare or education or, absurdly, demand the costs are paid from the carbon tax.
But to impose a tax just to hand the money back makes the whole idea of the tax quite pointless – it is a means of raising revenue and combating global warming.
No one demands that tax on beer be spent on pubs.
Nevertheless, road authorities arealready spending twice as much money on roads than they raise in road taxes. The failure to pass costs on to road-users has contributed to the economic crash and created a vicious circle of more traffic, more road-building, increasing car dependency and lack of public transport.
The Government should bill all road-users for the extra costs. About €100 for the average car should just about cover it.
Michael Job
Rossnagrena
Glengarriff
Co Cork
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