Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This group of financial resolutions deals with VRT, farmers' tax and motor trade tax. I will deal with the VRT and motor trade tax issues first.

The reality is that many people depend on their cars to get from A to B. I listened to what the Taoiseach said about the drop in income in terms of revenue. The statistics bear that out. We moved to a CO2 model post-2008 and car manufacturers have caught up with that to the extent that the majority of cars fall into the A and B grouping. The Government is continuing with the model. In effect, it has said to drivers to purchase low-emission cars and they will pay reduced taxation. Now the Government is saying that it is not taking in enough money and it wants people to pay more anyway, despite the fact that people might have sold a pre-2008 car that would have had a high CO2 output and invested in a new car in order to avail of low car tax. For many people who could afford to buy a new car, a driving issue was for them to be on band A or band B, yet the Government is coming back to sting them.

It is clear that the budget in its totality has been anti-family and anti-children. As the Taoiseach indicated, VRT goes up to approximately €90 for different classes of car. Parents with more than three children aged younger than 12 do not have the option of having a normal five-seater car. They must buy a seven-seater to comply with Irish law and safety standards. It is important that they do so. I do not oppose that. However, the reality is that families with more than three children are being hit hardest because they are forced to buy a larger car which means that they pay additional VRT because the car is more expensive in the first place, but also because those cars do not fall into the lower taxation A or B categories. The proposed increases will affect cars required by parents with larger families. It is another example of how the Government is affecting children and families in the budget.

There is no doubt that it is also a shake-down of motorists. It is another grab for money aimed at motorists. As someone from west Donegal, if I had the option of coming to Dublin by train or on Bus Éireann I would take it. People do not have the option in rural areas. Coming from a rural county the Taoiseach is aware of that. Dependency on cars is not something ingrained in the Irish psyche; it is a necessity. The increase will again come from the limited pot of money available to people. VRT is an unfair tax and we should aim to introduce a fairer system. With the free transport of goods and people in the European Union the Government introduced a tax for people to have a licence plate. People are paying thousands of euro to have their car registered. It is a way of circumventing European law.

VRT is a big issue in Border counties. I refer, for example, to people in Lifford who might work in Strabane and buy a car there but they have to pay an astronomical level of VRT just because they live across a bridge. They are in the same country but they live across a bridge and the Government stings them for that. Sinn Féin most definitely opposes both of those measures on motor taxation.

The Government wants to bring in €21 million from the changes to VAT affecting farmers in a full year. As the Taoiseach mentioned in his contribution, that affects non-registered farmers, who for VAT purposes are smaller farmers.

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