Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. As the previous speaker noted, the legislation has been necessary since budget night to ensure the very welcome reduction in tax on motor vehicles of up to €4,000 for some haulage contractors. It is a heavy reduction that was welcomed on the night by the haulage contractors. The court ruling of 21 October 2015 dealt with the method by which motor tax rates are calculated for articulated vehicles. That was traditionally done by referencing the combined weight of the tractor cab and trailer and the court ruled that the trailers could not be regarded as falling within the definition of the mechanically propelled vehicle. Accordingly, legislation was necessary, as the Minister of State and the previous speaker noted, to comply with the court ruling. Interim adjustments were made by the national vehicle and driver file and put in place by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport when this was first noted. Legislation is necessary to both restore the prejudgment definitions and taxation systems for articulated vehicles and also to give effect to the budget changes announced on the night.

As I stated, there were very welcome changes introduced. Every facet of society in the previous five years saw spending cuts imposed and various taxes implemented. Relieving taxes in one area is welcome and we have had a year packed with legislation aimed at addressing long-established cuts. They had been in place for five years really and people expected something back. This is one action we must take to make it right for the haulage industry and to comply with the court ruling.

As we are discussing vehicle registration, section 4(2) deals with electrically-propelled vehicles. The Bill makes provision for a €92 rate in respect of these vehicles. We will be considering electric cars in future. This week the Conference of Parties, COP 21, is ongoing and we had a climate change Bill in the House week. Only 222 electric cars were sold in Ireland last year. One way of incentivising people to buy electric cars would be to reduce tax further or incentivise the first year of purchase with a tax exemption initiative. In other European countries, such as Sweden, thousands of electric cars are sold every year. Ireland is really down at the bottom, with only 222 cars sold in 2014 and a very small number the year before. I read that from next year the ESB intends to impose charges in respect of people charging cars in public areas. When one parks one's car in order to do so, a parking charge must also be paid. We must examine such issues if we are serious about promoting electric cars and reducing CO2 emissions.

We do not often get the opportunity to speak about the taxing of cars, etc. One suggestion is to link fuel purchased to tax paid, leading to polluters paying more but the person who leaves the car in the driveway, not adding to CO2 emissions, pays less. People currently pay less for diesel fuel but we saw what happened with the Volkswagen scandal. Diesel cars have been found to give out more pollutants than petrol cars. By 2010, the design of petrol cars had improved but the on-road emissions from diesel cars can be 20 times higher than lab results indicate, so we were getting false information. Perhaps some of our legislation is based on false legislation elsewhere. This is a matter which we should consider. Some other European countries and the EU Commission have noted that the dieselisation of a nation's car fleet leads to costs in terms of hospitalisations, reduced quality of life, lost time at work and premature death. I know we tax our diesel cars in the same way as petrol cars so it is something to consider, along with the link to a road fuel tax.

We know gardaí spend time stopping people to inspect tax discs and bringing some of them to court. Those people might emerge from court and go back on the road without paying a fine. There are police and courts costs but many fines are not collected. If tax was linked to fuel, it would streamline the car taxation process, relieving gardaí and the courts from that burden. In addition, there would be 50% fewer cases in our courts, which would also relieve pressure on the court system. Our taxation system would also be grounded with an awareness of environmental harm, making a push with transport systems towards greater environmental responsibility. It is something to look consider, although not in the context of this Bill. We are discussing taxation and how to tax cars; the issue will emerge again but this is just to put down a marker. Everybody at COP 21 in Paris is discussing climate change and it would be remiss of me not to say that there should be some changes in this area. I welcome the changes in the Bill that come on foot of the budget and the court case from October.