Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for Finance the reasons for new vehicle registration procedures from 1 September 2010 affecting persons wishing to register a vehicle; if he will consider providing a telephone service for persons wishing to estimate the open market selling price as the current on-line system does not include all types of vehicles and does not take into account persons not familiar with the Internet; his views on whether it would be helpful that persons wishing to register a car here should be able to receive an estimate open market selling price before committing to purchasing the vehicle. [33991/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that on the introduction of vehicle registration tax (VRT) on 1 January 1993, there was a requirement for all vehicles to be presented for examination prior to registration. However, by the early years of this decade, the Revenue Commissioners had adopted a risk-based approach to the registration of vehicles, thus eliminating the need for all vehicles, save those that posed a serious risk of loss to the Exchequer, to be examined prior to registration. While this risk-based approach proved satisfactory to protect the VRT yield, it meant that a significant number of the used vehicles entering the State were being registered in the State without prior examination.

The Deputy will be aware that Revenue, as the registration authority for the State, also has a responsibility to ensure that all vehicles presented for registration are registered correctly. This responsibility became more onerous with the transposition into Irish law in March 2009 of EU Directive 2007/46/EC, which laid down minimum European vehicle standards as a pre-condition for registration. While the Directive impacts only on new passenger cars at present, its scope will be extended to all vehicles by 2014. Additionally, other EU Directives will extend obligations on the registration authorities of all Member States to examine all vehicles prior to registration.

In addition to the EU vehicle inspection requirements mentioned above, concerns were raised by members of the Oireachtas and stakeholders in the National Fleet Management Group (namely, An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority, the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government, the Department of Transport and the Revenue Commissioners) regarding the provenance and safety of some of the used vehicles presented for registration.

Taking the above factors into account, and bearing in mind that examination of vehicles is by no means the optimum use of the Revenue Commissioners' scarce resources whose core work is the assessment and collection of taxes and duties, the Government decided to make legislative provision to allow for the appointment of a competent person to carry out a pre-registration examination on all vehicles presented for registration. The intention of the relevant law is to ensure that all the conditions necessary for the registration of a vehicle and the proper administration of VRT are complied with before a vehicle may be registered in the State.

Thus, section 131 of the Finance Act 1992 (as amended by section 104 of the Finance Act 2010) provided for the appointment of a "competent person" to carry out certain functions relating to the registration of vehicles in the State on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners, while section 109 of the Finance Act 2010 provided for the authorisation of such competent person in respect of the collection and payment of the tax to the Revenue Commissioners.

Following a competitive procurement process carried out during 2008, in accordance with the public sector procurement rules, Applus Car Testing Limited (who also have responsibility for the operation of the National Car Testing Service (NCTS)) were appointed and authorised to carry out specified registration functions in relation to the operation of VRT and have been performing those functions in the State since 1 September 2010.

With regard to the acquisition of open market selling prices of vehicles prior to registration, the VRT calculator facility on the Revenue website www.revenue.ie currently provides an estimate of VRT liability for over 20,000 vehicle models and allows the vast majority of users to ascertain an estimated vehicle valuation and VRT liability prior to registration. However, due to the larger and more varied supply of vehicle models available in the UK (where most used vehicles acquired outside the State are sourced), it is not possible for Revenue to have a valuation for all models with different specifications that have not been previously registered in the State. Revenue is obliged to focus its resources on areas of greatest risk and is unable, currently, to allocate resources to conduct research and to provide a telephone consultancy for all vehicle models prior to registration particularly as the vast majority of such requests in the past, have proven speculative in nature.

It should be noted in the limited number of instances where Revenue are not in a position to provide a vehicle valuation on the VRT calculator prior to registration, persons can consult with the numerous professional car valuations services that are currently available. In this regard, car sales guides, car sales websites and vehicle dealerships in the State and in other jurisdictions represent a reliable source of information based on current values of vehicles.

Finally, all vehicle valuations whether sourced through the Revenue VRT Calculator or by other means are subject to the presentation of the vehicle at a NCTS centre, where the final valuation and VRT liability specific to the particular model will be confirmed by Revenue at the time of registration.

The Deputy will appreciate that an internet-based valuation system provides an efficient, fast and user-friendly facility which is accessible to a large proportion of the population of the State (either directly or indirectly).

Revenue have also confirmed that an enhanced VRT Calculator facility will be available from the end of November 2010.