Road Tax to be eco-friendly?

mike65

Story in todays Sunday Tribune suggests that the government is thinking off levying the road tax on engine emissions rather than size, but some concerns about poorer ppl getting hit hardest as they drive older vehicles which tend to pollute more, it said.

Then I thought "hang-on, the NCT includes emissions in the pass/fail criteria so that should'nt be an issue really..."

Presumalby all petrol engins would get hit hard for CO2
while diesels might pay up for particulates so its hard to know what engine type or size would be cheapest to tax at this point. I bet they never get round to it myself....

Mike.

Silvera

Lets hope that you are right Mike - that they never get around to it !

We pay enough taxes as it is :mad:

donutheadhomer

take a look at the new German system being introduced. Its a GPS tracking system that will monitor each car's movements and charge accordingly. I would much rather this system as it would encourage less car usage.
Did you know that Ireland is the higherst road usage in Europe at 19500km per year. The euro average is only 9500km per year. In the US it is only 14500 and the distances are obviously far greater.
I feel it all comes from gready b astards who allow cattle to be grazed in fields by the M50 rather than sell up and allow factories/Offices/Housing to be built. It sickens me that we have to commute to Portlaoise etc etc when adaquate land still exists in Dublin, but is wasted.

donutheadhomer

oh yeah, in germany there are abolishing the road taxes for this scheme

seamus

Originally posted by Silvera
Lets hope that you are right Mike - that they never get around to it !

We pay enough taxes as it is :mad:

Well, it would be in place of the current road tax. So if you have a more efficient car you'll be paying less then you do at the moment.

It's a strange system. The cost of having roads is more do with their construction and upkeep rather than environmental reparations. The CC of the engine is just a rough way of measuring the size of the vehicle, and therefore it's impact on the roads.

Motorbikes for example (/me always defending the home turf) take up 1/5 of the amount of road per mile, and my bike, being only 1/8 of a tonne, is going to have only 1/8 of the impact on the road than a 1 tonne car. However, under an environmental charge, may bike may prove less efficient, and therefore more expensive than it is now (but obviously still less than a car), despite the fact that the cost of my impact on the roads hasn't increased.

Mythago

Although it would be great if the gov revamped the road tax system I just can't imagine it happening, there is too much money being made as is! In Sweden the road tax system is based on emissions, and its a really good system, it's even funny sometimes as one person driving an saab pays less than his neighbours old fiesta!
I remember listening to Charlie McCreevy on a radio interview last January where he called anybody who drove a car bigger than a 1.4 "evironmentally irresponsible!" So with this narrowmindedness (the cat on the new saab 9-3 2l turbo is so efficient that the exhaust fumes are cleaner than the air it takes in) we aren't likely to see any changes other than straight forward increases in the next few years.

If that seems a little disjointed it's cos o'me hangover!

mike65

Originally posted by donutheadhomer

I feel it all comes from gready b astards who allow cattle to be grazed in fields by the M50 rather than sell up and allow factories/Offices/Housing to be built. It sickens me that we have to commute to Portlaoise etc etc when adaquate land still exists in Dublin, but is wasted.

er not true, the M50 is festooned with industrial parks and shopping centres which have turned the C-ring into
a car park in recent years. The reason ppl commute from places like Portlaoise is because of high prices which are the result of, well alot of things, including bad/corrupt planning, and the wish of most Dubs to live in a detached or semi-d houses rather than space efficient apartments. Virgin land does still exist but should it all end up under concret?

Mike.

donutheadhomer

oh i agree. but it just seems like an obscene waste of land to allow certain areas of m50 to be used just for agriculture. let the cows eat grass in portlaoise

Stephen

Originally posted by Mythago

I remember listening to Charlie McCreevy on a radio interview last January where he called anybody who drove a car bigger than a 1.4 "evironmentally irresponsible!"

I bet that fúcker's state Merc is bigger than 1.4l!

Fabritzo

Are you sure it wasn't that guy who does a very good impression of Charlie? I was almost had by him one day!!

Silvera

seamus,

"...paying less..".

I very much doubt it.
The current Road tax rates would probably be used as a "starting point" for any new scheme !

Victor

Originally posted by donutheadhomer
oh i agree. but it just seems like an obscene waste of land to allow certain areas of m50 to be used just for agriculture. let the cows eat grass in portlaoise

Actaully you will find very few cows in Dublin (outside pretentious nightclubs anyway ), most of those fields are permanently empty.

Silvera, instead of just getting anxious about the matter, why not campaign on it? Get them to ensure balance.

Oh, also expect the price of petrol / diesel to go up to at least the European average (or even the British average) if they ever abolish VRT.

Silvera

Victor,
I'm not particularly "anxious" about this (possible) new govt scheme. It probably won't happen anyway.

However, I agree that we could do with a national drivers association (Irish Drivers Association perhaps ?) to campaign/lobby on motoring issues. I've discussed this on another thread (or perhaps it was on www.askaboutmoney.com - can't remember which board).

Anyone interested in starting such an association ?