Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I realise there is no easy solution and no matter what the Minister does, it will cost money. It seems to me this is not the year to have the treble whammy, certainly not to withdraw an advantage that the industry had for the same reason, lack of supply, since the early 1990s.

I accept what the Minister stated about automatic transmission and lower emission cars. The trouble is that the Americans, by and large, can only drive automatic transmission cars which produce high emissions and the reality is that is the market we are going after. We are spending hundreds of thousands of euro on marketing in the American market, and it is throwing good money after bad if they then cannot drive when they get here because most of them will not come if they cannot drive.

The Minister is incorrect in stating cars will only get dearer in August; they are dearer now. If one compares car hire in Ireland and in Scotland, for instance, which is a comparable market and which is going after much the same kind of visitor, in Scotland they are up to 100% cheaper in some cases. It is not true to state that the shortage is not already hitting.

The Minister stated she will speak to the industry. What the industry will tell her is that if there is one action she could take, it is to reinstate the vehicle registration tax subsidy which has been withdrawn in the worst possible year to do so.

On the Minister's point about using second-hand cars, the reality is that we must maintain standards here. She knows if she went abroad she would get a new car. If one goes to any other country in Europe, one gets a new car rather than a second-hand car. If one starts going down that road of hiring second-hand cars, we can forget the tourist industry.

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