Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I generally speak after Senator Barrett in debates like this and I always tend to start by picking up on something he mentions. The weather, more than vehicles, is responsible for causing potholes in my area. We are now in the last week of March and every day this week we have looked out at snow falling, which is unprecedented for this time of year in this country.

This Bill is a piece of housekeeping that must be done following the budget, and we must implement the legislation today. I am a little amused by the pot of gold that Fianna Fáil continually identifies rather than dealing with the legislation before the House. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever found a pot of gold in this country, although we have had many fairies. If it exists, the Opposition Senators might tell us where it is because I would love to be able to find money today so as not to have to implement legislation like that before us today. I would like to be able to solve the problems generated by the party to which I have referred.

I would like to start on a positive note by welcoming the idea of motor vehicles being registered on a biannual basis. The motor industry has sought such an initiative for many years as everyone tries to get a car as early as possible in January in order to get the best value from it. It is a bit like planning an under-age hurling team in that if all the players could be born on the first day of the new year, it would make a big difference to when they can play. This will help the industry in many ways and I welcome the Bill's publication. Currently, 80% of new car sales take place in the first quarter so we will see a massive difference because of this Bill, which will even out the motor industry's sales.

The rise in vehicle registration tax, VRT, will increase the price of new cars and used cars as a result. Will the Minister of State comment on that? I welcome the changes in bands but for some reason, band G was not touched at all this year. The system is based on emissions but as I understand it, the band would mainly contain bigger cars. People have referred to the number of bigger cars in the lot outside Leinster House and, generally speaking, people with bigger cars have more money. One would imagine we could take a little more from them rather than what is being done in the legislation.

Another issue has been brought to my attention by a number of people this week and I have been concerned about it for many years. People are cash-strapped and in many cases are only able to tax a car on a quarterly basis. The difference between taxing a car on a quarterly as opposed to an annual basis is 12.5% on a small car such as a Daewoo Matiz. Senator Barrett, as a statistician, may be interested in that, as it is a substantial amount for anybody who cannot afford to go beyond the three month tax period. The tax is ¤199 for the year but it works out at ¤224 if it is done on a quarterly basis. Can we do something to make that fairer either in this legislation or further down the road?

There is also the matter of the local government fund, which will be affected by this Bill. As the Minister of State indicated, it will decrease from ¤1.1 billion to ¤960 million. There is a critical point below which the local government fund cannot go. Senators Keane and Harte and I are very much aware that at this stage, everything that can be adjusted downwards has been hit, so I ask the Minister of State to take that into account. In this week we saw three employees of Cork County Council suspended because they saw a big pothole when they were returning from work and like any good employee, they stopped to repair it. A safety inspector was travelling behind them and as a result, the three gentlemen have been suspended. I fully appreciate that there must be a health and safety regime, which should be paramount, as there have been deaths of employees in local authorities on the roads. Nevertheless, I have learned that safety auditing on any individual piece of road work can run to 8% of the cost of the work, which is a substantial amount of money.

I made some checks with our own engineers this week on what was required for one year of work in the area I served as a councillor.

It required one qualified employee to spend one week surveying sites and conducting the audit on the work. There is a significant amount of red tape involved in safety audits. One cannot do anything now without 8% or more of the money coming out of the audit. Surely savings can be made on this and we need to review the legislation that has brought us to the point where a pothole cannot be filled without conducting a safety audit. This is what resulted this week. I would like the Minister to review this, although it is not directly related to this legislation. The Local Government Fund is being trimmed to the last and we must examine where the money is being spent. Are we over legislated in this area?