Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 116: To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to abolish vehicle registration tax changes in the future; if so, the timescale of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19462/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I have no plans to abolish VRT. In that regard it must be recognised that in Ireland VRT is an important source of revenue for the Exchequer; for example yielding around €1.3bn in 2006, €1.4bn in 2007 and €1.1bn in 2008. The receipts for 2009 at €375 million reflected the contraction in economic activity.

As the Deputy will be aware, it would not be possible to abolish VRT without raising the equivalent amount of money from other sources. The possibility of introducing widespread road pricing has at times been mentioned; however, any such measure is realistically still some way off. Increasing excise on petrol and auto-diesel has also been put forward. Abolishing VRT and collecting the same amount of revenue, that would have been raised in a normal year, from another source would, for example, require an excise, inclusive of VAT, increase on both petrol and auto-diesel of 25 to 30 cent per litre. There is no evidence that such measures would be any more agreeable to the public than VRT is, and indeed each bring their own, if different, set of problems and difficulties.