Overhaul unfair road tax system

THE vastly differing rates of road tax levied on motorists are based on an flawed interpretation of “environmental responsibility” and are in need of complete re-structuring.

We have a totally artificial road-tax regime whereby owners of post-2008 cars are effectively subsidised by those who either do not need to, or wish to, have a new car at this time.

It is in effect turning the maxim that “those who can best afford should pay more” on its head.

The proud new 5-series Beamer owner can zip along the motorways for €150, while the careful custodian of even a modest older 1.4L small car is levied at €350.

The rationale for this, we are told, is to incentivise the purchase of new “green” cars , and get rid of the “gas-guzzlers” off the roads.

This argument completely ignores the reality that new cars are not created from thin air. Their cost is, in effect, a direct measure of their carbon footprint, caused by their manufacture from the earth’s resources.

The older car, while it might emit a few extra wisps of CO2/mile, will motor on for many miles before it even approaches the environmental cost of creating a new greener car.

It was environmental vandalism to incentivise the premature destruction of perfectly serviceable motor cars under the scrappage schemes at the behest of the lobbying of the “impoverished” car-barons. We put taxpayer money into the hands of foreign car-makers while our own “industry” screwed on a few number plates at €1,500 a pop.

Remember there would be exactly the same Irish employment in maintaining an older car as a new one (arguably more). No Irish employment was created or is being sustained by such a daft scheme.

In equity there should be just one rate of car road tax. We are all availing of the same service — the right to use the roads, no more, no less.

If it is argued that the older “less-green” motorist should pay a little more for his profligacy, then he is already doing so freely and by choice, in his fuel tax bill, more frequent NCT-testing and other sundries.

The lack of a motorist/road users’ lobby in this country makes the advancement of this goal more difficult — the media being dominated by industry interests and half-baked green advocates who have fallen for the consumerist babble.

Ted Neville

Carrigaline Road

Douglas

Co Cork