Irish Drivers Association – Giving Irish Drivers A Voice        Irish Drivers Association – Giving Irish Drivers A Voice

Irish Drivers Association Budget (23rd Oct 2006)

Reference: VRT

Dear Mr. Cowen, Minister for Finance,

We refer to previous correspondence on the above matter. The association is calling for the abolition of vehicle registration tax on all new and second hand motor vehicles and the refunding of this tax to each citizen who purchased a new or second hand vehicle since this nations accession to the EU on the 1st.January 1973.

We request that consideration be strongly given to this matter in the forthcoming budget. Our reasons for this are numerous, not least the fact that the imposition of this tax breaches the provisions of Article 25 of the Treaty of Rome and in implementing inferior legislation in the form of a 1992 Statutory Instrument, deprived citizens of their Treaty entitlements, has made the cost of a vehicle prohibitively expensive and distorts the single internal market.

The VRT is a ‘cancer’ in Irish society in relation to motoring. VRT does not exist in several Member States. Why is the Irish citizen expected to pay more for their own goods? These matters have been extensively brought to your attention in previous correspondence. The responses are clearly unsatisfactory.

Other associations such as the AA and SIMI have made similar requests. We wish to add our voice to these requests. The European Parliament  are also on the citizens side and are seeking its abolition. The association will strongly resist any replacement of VRT on any other forms of taxation. We are also concerned that every aspect of motoring is taxed by this Government in every area of a vehicle’s use, from motor tax to maintainence, fuel tax etc. The effect of these burdensome taxes is to interfere in other areas of fundamental freedoms, most notably the free of movement of persons and the free movement of goods. Concern is being voiced by our members and the citizens in relation to further interference with our Constitutional and Treaty Rights by Gardai, customs and revenue attempting to dispossess citizens of their vehicles by demanding these ‘unlawful’ taxes which are clearly in dispute and we observe that under Article 10 of the Treaty of Rome, Member States are obliged to fulfil their Treaty obligations on behalf of the citizens and that good government in a democracy has, as its primary function, the implementation of the will of the people.

We intend to make this matter, an election issue in the forthcoming General Election and inform citizens of their Treaty rights which have been undermined and circumvented by inferior legislation which cannot usurp or Treaty rights and expectations which we signed up to as a result of a referendum. Surely, these rights, if we (as citizens) are to give them up, the State would be required to hold another referendum to allow the State to take away these rights!

We request a meeting to discuss these matters with you and in the meantime please consider our request for the abolition of VRT and its refund to citizens when formulating budget considerations.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue.

Yours Faithfully,
……………………….
David Russell
National Secretary, Irish Drivers Association.
087 231 2250.

John Lernihan
National Chairman, Irish Drivers Association.
087 2509 123