Licence fee or road tax?

onemorechance

In certain regions in Canada, you are charged a yearly driver's licence fee of around $90. However, this fee can rise up to $400 should you accumulate penalty points.

I think this would be a good system to replace what I believe is a bad system, the pre-08 engine-size and post-08 emission based road tax system.

If you have a good driving record, you pay the base amount, less than e100 per year is fair I think, up to maybe a max of e500. Basically, whatever the super-low-emission, super expensive post 08 green machines are being charged.

In our recessionary times, it's sad to see people with cars worth around the e1k mark being pulled over and having their cars confiscated because they cannot afford a yearly tax which is close to the value of their car!

I'll add a simple poll, which system would ye prefer?

To make them more comparible, the annual rates I have found are:

A 0 -120g 104 Mininmum
G More than 225g/km 2,100 Maximum

Not over 1,000 172 Minimum
3,001 or more 1,566 Maximum

So the current system as above, or a licence fee ranging from E100 for zero penalty points, to e2000 for 10 penalty points? Or whatever the maximum you can get and still be allowed to drive!

Edit: Besides the fact the local councils won't want to change anything that could reduce their intake, I see another flaw where you can own multiple vehicles and you gotta tax each! Still, little things like this the Gov could do to help us out!

Double edit: It's another way to encourage safe driving! It would be a nice proposal to put to councils, are ye more interested in road safety or road tax!?

racso1975

i would not be in favour of any new tax. Motor tax is killin me as is

onemorechance

I mean it as a replacement to the road tax, not an addition.

oceanman

onemorechance wrote: »

I mean it as a replacement to the road tax, not an addition.

yes but this is ireland! so you can bet it would be an addition.

ShadowHearth

oceanman wrote: »

yes but this is ireland! so you can bet it would be an addition.

True.

To be honest I like that system.

1. You will still pay tax yearly, but you will be able to have weekend car and daily runaround.
2. The tax dodgers ( not the ones who missed it etc, but the ones who newer pay on purpose ) will have to pay it no matter what.
3. It wil allow a bigger range of cars on the Market.
4. It will generate same money as 99% of new cars are on lowest band anyway.

Good idea, but like it was mentioned above: it wouldn't be replacement, they would make it additional charge...

Zubeneschamali

I favour doing away with motor tax and adding the tax onto fuel. Polluter pays.

Acidflash

onemorechance wrote: »

I mean it as a replacement to the road tax, not an addition.

There's a road tax now!

I favour doing away with motor tax and adding the tax onto fuel. Polluter pays.

I don't think it will ever happen, they will increase the cost of petrol however.

Chippy01

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I favour doing away with motor tax and adding the tax onto fuel. Polluter pays.

They did that around 1979 (iirc) in the budget.

Then they introduced a five pound 'registration fee' to keep track of the amount of cars on the road. You even got a round piece of paper to put in your windscreen to show that you have paid said registration fee.
That five pound fee then went to ten pounds, and then twenty, and then they intrduced the tax by engine size system.

But they never took the original tax back off the fuel.

So we are now paying road tax, which went on the fuel price; and motor tax as well.

CiniO

I'd say that system would be very unfair.

1. Anyone on foreign licence can't have any penalty points.
2. People driving in rural areas are much less likely to get any points.

F.e. I don't have any penalty points, but if I've driven in Dublin like I do at where I live now, I would probably have exceeded 12 points limit many many times.
I actually haven't seen a squad car doing any checks anywhere for over a year now.

alias no.9

CiniO wrote: »

1. Anyone on foreign licence can't have any penalty points.

There are already 'Ghost Licenses' set up for people without driving licenses or with foreign licenses on which all points are accumulated and retained to be applied if the person ever gets an Irish license. Otherwise, automatically apply the maximum rate for anybody not holding an irish licence driving an irish registered car with the exception of rental cars. You get a discount for having no points rather than being penalised for having points.

CiniO wrote: »

2. People driving in rural areas are much less likely to get any points.

Those are the breaks. There's a balance to be struck with respect to all aspects of life depending on where you choose to live. People in rural areas have **** public transport, limited access to taxi's etc... There's also an argument that they're more likely to pick up points as they're more car dependent and have to drive more frequently.

onemorechance

CiniO wrote: »

I'd say that system would be very unfair.

1. Anyone on foreign licence can't have any penalty points.
2. People driving in rural areas are much less likely to get any points.

F.e. I don't have any penalty points, but if I've driven in Dublin like I do at where I live now, I would probably have exceeded 12 points limit many many times.
I actually haven't seen a squad car doing any checks anywhere for over a year now.

Foreign licence holders are supposed to get a local licence in Canada after 6 months, I think it's the same in Ireland, or similar, but maybe I'm incorrect.

As for the rural drivers getting less points, the penalty points system should be evenly enforced, for example, the speed van cameras are supposed to be where speeding related accidents are highest, and probably accidents occur most often where there are higher population densities.

CiniO

onemorechance wrote: »

Foreign licence holders are supposed to get a local licence in Canada after 6 months, I think it's the same in Ireland, or similar, but maybe I'm incorrect.

You are incorrect, at least partly.
Any licence issued in any EU country (and EU citizens are probably vast majority of foreign licence holders in Ireland) is valid in Ireland without any limits, to the time of expiry of the document.

As for the rural drivers getting less points, the penalty points system should be evenly enforced, for example, the speed van cameras are supposed to be where speeding related accidents are highest, and probably accidents occur most often where there are higher population densities.

Speed cameras are located only in already chosen stretches.
Even I do about 1000km every week, I didn't drive through such stretch for almost a month.
As I said as well, I didn't see any road check for over a year.
So no matter how much I wanted, there's very little chance I get any penalty points.

CiniO

alias no.9 wrote: »

There are already 'Ghost Licenses' set up for people without driving licenses or with foreign licenses on which all points are accumulated and retained to be applied if the person ever gets an Irish license. Otherwise, automatically apply the maximum rate for anybody not holding an irish licence driving an irish registered car with the exception of rental cars. You get a discount for having no points rather than being penalised for having points.

But that would be pretty much law enforcing every imigrant to swap EU licence for Irish licence.
That would probably be against one of EU directives.

onemorechance

CiniO wrote: »

You are incorrect, at least partly.
Any licence issued in any EU country (and EU citizens are probably vast majority of foreign licence holders in Ireland) is valid in Ireland without any limits, to the time of expiry of the document.

True, I got it mixed up with the registration!