Car trade’s reduced emissions claim is ‘greenwash’

ALAN Nolan of the SIMI says (Letters, June 21) that “as a result of scrappage, 17,500 more cars have been sold this year delivering an additional €70m in badly needed extra revenue to the exchequer”.

But 11,500 were not eligible for scrappage and the 6,000 that were pay either no VRT or a greatly reduced amount. This seems a perverse argument; the net effect must be a loss of tax revenue.

Mr Nolan’s figure of 70gms/km CO2 saving on a new car assumes it replaces a much bigger, more powerful car.