Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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281. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the policy rationale for the need to tax a vehicle which is to be declared off the road; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4427/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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 was declared off the road retrospectively with a system under which the vehicle must be declared off the road in advance. The system of making retrospective declarations had become a means of evasion of motor tax estimated to have cost some €50m annually.

The Act provides that a vehicle can be declared off the road for a minimum period of three months and a maximum period of twelve months. Where the owner of a vehicle wishes to make a declaration of non-use, he or she must do so during the final month of an existing tax disc or a previously made declaration of non-use. The declaration can be made on-line at or through the local motor tax office. The National Vehicle and Driver File, under the auspices of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, issues renewal notices at the beginning of the final month of tax or a previously made declaration of non-use to remind motorists that the vehicle must be either taxed or declared off the road for a further period.

Where a declaration of non-use is not made in the final month of a tax disc or previously made declaration of non-use, a vehicle must be taxed for the minimum period provided for in motor tax legislation for the category of vehicle concerned. A new declaration can then be made at any stage during the final month of the new motor tax disc if the vehicle is thereafter not going to be in use in a public place.

These arrangements were well publicised at the time of introduction of the legislation.