Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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963. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will review a matter (details supplied) regarding motor tax. [41049/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Non-Use of Motor Vehicles Act 2013 came into effect on 1 July 2013. The primary purpose of the Act is to replace the system whereby a vehicle is only declared off the road when the owner next goes to tax it with a system under which the vehicle must be declared off the road in advance. This is aimed at closing an evasion loophole, costing taxpayers an estimated €50m per annum, which was facilitated through the use of retrospective declarations. The Act provided for a three month transition period from 1 July 2013 to 30 September 2013 to allow vehicle owners to bring their motor tax status up to date by making both a retrospective and prospective off-road declaration.

There was extensive public notice of the Act’s coming into force and widespread awareness-raising of the new arrangements from before the start of the transition period. Advertisements giving notice of the proposed changes were run in national and local newspapers in the first week of July 2013 and again in the second week of September 2013. Local radio ads were run over the course of a week in July 2013 and both national and local radio ads were again run over the course of a week in mid-September 2013. The changes were also highlighted in a number of media articles over the course of that period.

The new arrangements, only allowing for a future declaration, are fully in force since 1 October 2013. Any vehicle owner who did not bring his or her motor tax status up to date by the September deadline is liable for arrears from the expiry of the last period for which motor tax was paid, should he or she again wish to use the vehicle in a public place.

Given that vehicle owners who did not avail of the transition arrangements must now pay arrears in motor tax where these arise and the necessity generally of maintaining a consistent approach in the application of the legislation, exemptions are not provided for in individual cases.