Budget fallout

[Myfeckin FTO]

That still doesn't suggest that annual road tax will be changed for used imports. ...

Seems clear enough to me - you are right though - It is absolutely bizzare that you could pay two separate rates of tax on an identical model car. But then again - this stupid increase on the back of "green" issues is just a smokescreen for creating more revenue to fund the HSE and wage increases for ministers etc.

Its a joke that a guy that owns a sports car like an FTO and drives it 5K miles a year has to pay 2K road tax while a guy that drives a small diesel car 40K miles a year (and hence causes 5-6 times the pollution) gets to pay a couple of hundred euro in road tax.
They should have abolished road tax and increased tax on fuel if they really wanted the polluter to pay. But they would have lost money and the purpose of this charade is to line the pockets of the government further.
What do they spend the money on?
What will happen when the economy crashes and we're left with a public body that is far too expensive to run having helped itself from the boom times?
Will they spend the extra revenue from this benefiting the environment - My hole!

All being done to benefit the environment ? If everyone in Ireland stopped driving and we took cars off the road completely does anyone honestly think it will make one iota of change to global warming? Not while countries like Russia, USA and China etc continue with the emmisons from their industries.

[colm_mcm]

Shane, the problem with putting all the tax on fuel is it messes up the consumer price index.

[mcgon1979]

Fair play MF. Its true. cars are part of the problem but a tiny part. a huge concern is commercial airliners though. For every person on board a flight to New York from Dublin, the plane will output the same Carbon as they would have used in a year of driving. Thats one flight! every person! And worse is its being emitted at 35000ft in the ionosphere where it does most of the damage regarding greenhouse effect. No mention of that though. How many transatlantic flights are there per year? each flight gives the same pollution as all 400 passengers driving for a year. startling fact, but true.