Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In considering what changes I was going to make, I also had to take into account what could be operationalised. The Revenue Commissioners and payroll software providers would have to apply changes. The advice was to minimise the number of changes. If we went into the body of the table, started changing all of the rates and made significant changes that would probably have resulted in a much longer delay before people felt the benefit of the changes. The advice was to keep the changes as simple and straightforward as possible. I decided that a reduction in the market value of a vehicle and a change in the entry point to the higher mileage band was the simplest and most effective way of bringing about a reduction in the increase for many although, as Deputy said, it results in an actual reduction for some in the BIK relative to last year.

My message is that companies need to transition. Companies with employees who are using company vehicles need to make the change where they can to lower emission vehicles. The principle has been retained that the BIK is higher for less environmentally friendly vehicle. That will continue. Today, with the support of the committee, we are legislating for a temporary change to the end of the year. The principles we set out in 2019 in the previous Government, which I am retaining here, will continue into the future. I will examine this further in the months ahead. There will not be a change to the overall principle. Companies who have fleets of vehicles need to continue to change and buy into more environmentally friendly vehicles for all of the right reasons.