THE €200 parking at work tax has finally been pencilled in for Dublin this October with a roll-out to Cork and other cities by next May.
But nearly two years after the highly contentious levy was first announced, opponents are calling for it to be abandoned, pointing to the continued delay in setting it up as proof of its unworkability.
The levy is set to be trialed in Dublin within two months, its impact will then be assessed in the new year and if a decision is made to roll it out across the country it would begin in cities like Cork and Galway from May onwards, according to the Finance Department.
The Dublin pilot scheme will only operate in the heart of the city centre and be applied to those workers seen to benefit from a free parking space provided by their employer.
The Government insists the measure is primarily aimed at combating congestion, pointing out that exemptions will be made for areas that lack good public transportation links, but critics have branded it an unwieldy stealth tax.
Fine Gael transport spokesman Simon Coveney called for ministers to abandon the idea.
"It is just not going to work and the fact that it still has not been implemented nearly two years after being announced shows that.
"It has really not been thought out properly and, while there is some sense in making people pay something for parking in city and town centres, this is not the way to do it," Mr Coveney said.
The bulk of Dublin city workers set to be hit by the pilot scheme are expected to be public sector staff.
The levy, announced in the emergency budget of 2008, was initially estimated to raise some €10m per year for the Exchequer by imposing the €200 annual payment on workers whose employers make car parking spaces available for them.
Employers will face fines of up to €3,000 if they do not apply the tax to staff via salary reductions. Parking spaces shared by more than one worker will see the levy divided between those drivers using it.
The Departments of Environment and Finance have been jointly tasked with bringing in the levy with the intention of extending it to city centre and business areas across Dublin and then other cities such as Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
The implementation of the levy has been delayed a number of times and is expected to take up to 18 months to go fully national once it is piloted in Dublin.
Former finance minister Charlie McCreevy was believed to have considered a park at work tax when he was in government, but was talked out of it by advisers who told him it would be unworkable.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, August 30, 2010
