Minister Cullen confirms 12% rise in motor tax

The Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen has confirmed a 12% increase in motor tax to come into effect on January 1, 2003.

The money will be ring-fenced into a roads fund for the improvement of non-national roads. It’s the biggest increase in road tax in the past 10 years.

It comes in the wake of a 7% VRT increase on vehicles and a 3 cent rise in diesel prices.

Commenting on the increase, chairman of the Consumer’s Association Michael Kilcoyne said this Government has lost touch with reality.

"How do they expect people to live? If one is to look at it objectively, they are really driving people out of the country. It seems to me that this country has moved from one where people wanted to live and people were encouraged to stay, to a country where nobody can stay any longer except the super-rich"