Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

Why are we voting on this motion this evening if it is clear?

In terms of motor tax, there is something inherently unjust in charging somebody who drives his or her car 2,000 km each year the same as somebody who drives 50,000 km. My grandmother pays the same amount of motor tax as I do, even though she drives less than 4,000 km per year compared to my 50,000 km. That is fundamentally unjust. If the Minister is seriously interested in linking taxation and revenue raising to emissions and car usage, it surely makes sense to create a structure that charges people for car usage through motor tax. The amount of time spent on the road in a car emitting carbon should relate to the amount of money spent on road tax. Irrespective of whether tax is changed to make it fuel or mileage based, that should be the direction taken in a genuinely reforming green budget. Unfortunately, we are not doing that.

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