Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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582. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the online motor tax renewal service does not work in the case of off-the-road declarations; if he will make arrangements to rectify this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38250/14]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Non-Use of Motor Vehicles Act 2013, introduced new arrangements for declaring the non-use of a vehicle for motor tax purposes. The system requires a non-use declaration (off road declaration) for a vehicle to be made in advance of its motor tax expiry date thereby replacing the system whereby owners could declare the non-use of a vehicle retrospectively, commonly referred to as ‘gapping’, and thereby avoid payment of motor tax.

The Deputy's statement that the online motor tax renewal service does not work in the case of off-the-road declarations is incorrect. Since 1 October 2013 non-use declarations may be made online, via the online motor tax website, . Similar to the renewal of motor tax, vehicles owners use the Personal Identification Number (PIN) on the motor tax renewal notice to declare the non-use of a vehicle through the online system. The online service has operated successfully and in excess of 46,000 non-use declarations have been notified via that channel to date, over 35,000 of which were declared during the August/September 2014 period. This represents 47% of all such declarations made in that period.