John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

As the Ceann Comhairle pointed out, the amendments were ruled out of order for the same reason similar amendments were ruled out of order on Committee Stage. As we know, amendments cannot impose a charge. I was advised that as a consequence, they had been ruled out of order.

There were about five amendments in the names of Deputies Ciarán Lynch and Hogan. Essentially, they sought to change the starting date for the new CO2 emissions based motor tax system from 1 July 2008 to 1 May 2004. I assume this was done following my statement on Committee Stage that CO2 data only became available to the NVDF from May 2004. I took many of the Deputies' concerns into account and addressed them but now I am being accused of changing the goalposts and succumbing to lobbying. I only succumbed to the Deputies' lobbying after I had listened carefully to their concerns.

The effect of the Deputies' amendments would be to apply a new CO2 emissions based motor tax system only to new cars registered from May 2004. Whether intentionally or otherwise, the amendments would exclude all second-hand imports from the new system. This would give rise to another anomaly, of the kind both Deputies sought to address on Second Stage, that new cars from May 2004 and equivalent second-hand imports would be dealt with under two different systems. New cars bought after 2004 would be dealt with under the CO2 emissions based system, while equivalent second-hand imports would be taxed on engine size. This would result in low CO2 emitting second-hand imports being charged at a higher rate than equivalent new cars bought after May 2004. High CO2 emitting second-hand imports would be charged at a lower rate than equivalent cars registered after May 2004. On top of this, the amendments were ruled out of order because they would impose a charge and clearly would create another anomaly.

Deputy Hogan also asked about the refund.

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