Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When the legislation remodelling the car tax system was first introduced in 2008, it brought about a complete change in the operation of this country's auto industry. If Deputies will excuse the pun, it could be said that we were in a different environment at that time. Approximately 20% of the national fleet of vehicles had diesel engines in 2008, but I understand that has since increased to approximately 60% among new purchases. I will pick up on the point made by Deputy Donnelly. The real difficulty that emerged from the model that was put in place by the Government of that time relates to the fact that the most efficient cars are manufactured by significant brand leaders like Lexus, BMW, Audi and Mercedes. As a result, one can tax a top-of-the-range Lexus or Mercedes for less than one might spend on taxing a Fiesta with a petrol engine. There has to be some redressing of the issue. The problem is that whereas it costs something like €106 or €108 to tax a top-of-the-range Audi, one has to pay €300 or €400 simply because one bought a little Toyota or Ford with a petrol engine. Something has to be done to address that. My recollection of the debate on the original legislation is that it was based on an assumption that we would have a petrol fleet into the future, with a minimal adjustment to diesel, but that did not happen. I do not think the Minister of the time or anybody else foresaw what actually happened. The position flipped over completely in 2008 and 2009.