Bill Cullen, the Irish businessman who heads up RTE show “The Apprentice”, blames the Green-inspired VRT changes for sounding the death knell for the Irish motor industry.
“You’ve killed the motor trade. People can’t buy a new car and it’s all because of the Greens”, he said in a debate with Green senator Dan Boyle on yesterday's Pat Kenny Show . Cullen maintains that the VRT changes were "unnecessary" as the EU has already required car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions by 2010.
While it’s doubtful that changes in the way VRT is inflicted are soley to blame for the stagnancy in the car market (the bursting of the bubble and the end of easy credit have to be primary causes) some might maintain that the tax changes were mere tokenism - and an attempt by Government to give some green credulity to what is essentially an unfair, uncompetitive and anti-EU tax.
Successive Irish governments have forced Irish motorists to pay substantially more for their cars than most other EU citizens, by as much as up 40% more in some cases. They have also denied motorists living in Ireland the right to import their cars into this country without paying what is effectively excise duty.
But now they disguise it as a “green” tax. In fact, they might have us believe they were world-leading visionaries in saving the planet, as they were taxing us blind before green issues were ever on the agenda. But we all know we don’t do visionaries here.
Bill Cullen is a rich man. So instead of discussing the finer points of tinkering with a tax that is contrary to EU principles, perhaps he should use his influence and wealth in a campaign to have it abolished altogether.
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