Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

We do not do a sectoral analysis on what impact this policy would have on particular forms of employment. I am reminded, however, that the BIK rate for vans is already very low. It is at a low level. I will just emphasise the point I made a few moments ago that many years have passed since the Finance Bill 2019 and by the time we get to 2029, a decade will have passed since the original policy intent was communicated.

We are looking to give employers and employees a further year at the full €10,000 OMV and to then give a further two years at a tapered rate to allow them to make the changes we believe are necessary. I appreciate the inconvenience and the impact this could have on costs. I emphasise that we will taper it out over a number of years. In the absence of introducing measures like this, it is very unlikely that we would get to having a car fleet consistent with our goal of reducing carbon emissions in our economy. I appreciate the difficulty involved in, but if we are to get to a point that carbon emissions from private transport begin to change direction, we have to put in place measures like this to support the changing fleet. What we are doing is extending it in an unchanged way for another year and then looking to taper it out over a number of years after that.