Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue in regard to benefit-in-kind. At a time when we are trying to become more environmentally friendly, the Department of Finance's arrangements for benefit-in-kind, particularly for company cars, are ridiculous. I have been contacted about this issue by a number of business owners and employees who drive company cars. In the case of hybrid cars, people can get the VAT back on diesel but not on petrol. This means companies will purchase diesel cars in order to reclaim the VAT. In the case of electric cars, the range of charging points around the country is not sufficient at this stage to encourage companies to purchase those vehicles. The downtime for their employees would be too great.With regard to another part of the benefit-in-kind, the more mileage an employee does, the less they will have to pay in benefit-in-kind. There are employees driving around and using up diesel to do unnecessary mileage, so that they can increase the mileage to lower their benefit-in-kind. It is absolutely ridiculous, in my view.

What I am calling for this morning - and I know I will have the Deputy Leader's backing on this - is that the Minister or the Department would carry out a full review of the current system and engage with all of the stakeholders on the issue. It is crazy in this day and age that people would have to be driving around doing unnecessary mileage to lower their benefit-in-kind. I also ask that we look at the VAT system, whereby they can claim it back on diesel but cannot claim it back on petrol.