Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 34 relates to motor tax.

Deputy Doherty touched on some points concerning vehicle registration tax. I will deal with the motor tax issue first. Members can tell me if I miss any elements.

Minor changes are being made to the current CO2-based motor tax table. There are rate increases for the most polluting cars only. No changes are being made to the table of rates accorded by engine size. We estimate that 92% of cars already registered in the State up to the end of 2020 will not see an increase in their annual motor tax bill. Most of the remaining 8% will see a motor tax increase of around €10 per annum. Some cars could see an increase of around €50 in motor tax. We estimate that this will account for about 0.5% of cars on the road. These cars produce a very high level of emissions. As the Deputy said, rates for cars registered before July 2008 will remain unchanged.

Regarding the points made by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, SIMI, on the impact of VRT, I note that particular examples were presented to illustrate the most extreme increase in VRT for car purchases. For obvious reasons I will not refer to examples of specific cars in this debate. Most cars that are purchased will see minor changes in VRT. However, it is true that there will be significant increases in VRT on the purchase of larger vehicles with larger engines. On average, however, they will not reflect the examples we heard before the budget was announced.