Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 24:

In page 106, line 16, after "where" to insert ", on or after 1 February 2020,".

We had a good discussion on this issue on Committee Stage. It relates to the extension of VRT relief on certain hybrid vehicles in 2020. This has been restricted from the level of relief available hitherto. The Minister is not moving to the full worldwide harmonised light vehicle testing procedure, WLTP, system until 2021, and this is the right decision under the circumstances because it could have had quite a significant effect on the motor industry if the Minister had done so in one fell swoop in 2020.

The central point I made on Committee Stage was that restricting the VRT relief on hybrids will have the effect of making certain hybrid vehicles more expensive relative to diesel vehicles for one year only. What the Minister could actually see in practice is an increase in the sale of diesel vehicles in 2020 which, I am sure, is not what the Minister has intended. This would be because of the threshold he has set for vehicles to qualify for the extension of the relief in 2020. From looking at the data I have been able to see that hybrid vehicles are still far more environmentally friendly than the vast majority of diesel and petrol vehicles. For many people, hybrid vehicles are a stepping stone to full electric vehicles but I understand that in 2020 the majority of hybrid vehicles will be more expensive because the relief will have been removed from them. The purpose of the amendments I tabled on Committee Stage and these amendments was to allow at least the vehicles that have been ordered to wash through the system in the early part of the year. I am flagging and forewarning the Minister that the effect of what has been done could well be that sales of more environmentally damaging vehicles could increase in 2020 vis-à-vishybrids which, in the round, are less damaging.

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