Lenihan struggles to explain new car parking charge
Pressed repeatedly on how the €200 charge for driving to work would operate, the minister was at a total loss.
Mr Lenihan displayed only the vaguest grip on how the tax on use of urban workplace parking spaces would be implemented while fielding calls from enraged listeners to RTÉ’s Pat Kenny radio show.
The minister made it clear the move had been announced without even some of the most rudimentary aspects of how it would work being figured out.
At one point Mr Lenihan told an angry caller he could only “assume” how it would affect workers, despite unveiling the measure in his budget statement as a way of clawing back €40 million from motorists who park at work.
Opposition parties branded the charge “unworkable”. Green Environment Minister John Gormley revealed the controversial measure had first been planned by former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, but was abandoned in the face of strong opposition from the civil service.
Mr Lenihan promised the levy would not hit motorists who have no other method of getting work, but could not explain how they would be able to prove this.
He said the charge would be levied on the individual motorist, but then indicated employers may pay it.
The minister also stated that employees assigned a work parking space who used it sporadically would not have to pay the full tax, but could not give any further details or what payments would be expected.
Mr Lenihan repeatedly stated the details would be “sorted out” when the Finance Bill went through the Oireachtas in the next few weeks.
“The measure we will draw up will be targeted at those who do have real alternatives to driving to work.
“Clearly we will have to take into account the cases of shift workers.
“There are some people who benefit from these spaces in the centres of large urban areas where there are travel alternatives,” he said.
Mr Lenihan, who is chauffeured around in a gas guzzling state Mercedes, said the new tax would help the environment.
“We have to encourage a more sustainable living standard. People who work in the Dáil — deputies — all of us have the advantage of a valuable parking space in the centre of Dublin.
“Clearly that has to be paid for and there is a general payment that all of the community makes by allowing us to have that and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to tax that,” the minister said.
Environment Minister Gormley also admitted that it would be impossible to monitor the tax breaks given to companies if they provide bicycles for employees. He said tax claims would have to be taken on trust as they are in Britain.
