Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

This could as easily have been introduced from 1 January but car dealers had a lot of cars on their forecourts for which they had entered into contracts. If this fundamental change was made at the start of the year, they could have been left with unsold cars, so they needed the extra six months. Car dealers have told me that the price of some medium sized cars will drop by between €5,000 and €7,000 on 1 July.

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