Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Mar 1925

Vol. 10 No. 12

TAXING OF MOTOR VEHICLES.

During the election campaign there was a statement made with regard to a sub-committee set up by my Department. This has given rise to a certain amount of misunderstanding. The statement was made by Deputy Gorey, and, as the election is now over, I presume he will have no objection to having the statement corrected. The statement was to the effect that I have set up a Committee to deal with the taxing of motor vehicles, and that, first of all, I had given no representation to the farmers on that Commission; secondly, that the Committee had reported in favour of the petrol tax and that I was going to refuse to entertain the report of the Committee.

With regard to the first part of the statement, it is untrue to say that I set up this Committee and did not give the farmers representation on it. That Committee was set up by the Roads Advisory Commission, which was set up over a year ago. Farmers were given representation on that Committee. Now the Roads Advisory Committee has appointed a sub-committee to inquire into the question of motor taxation generally throughout the Saorstát. The sub-committee was appointed by the Roads Advisory Committee and I had absolutely nothing to do with that. Deputy Gorey had an informal conversation with me, and in that conversation we both argued the merits of different kinds of motor taxation, but in that conversation I said nothing to Deputy Gorey to leave him under the impression that I was going to turn down the report of this Advisory Committee. That Committee has not reported to the General Committee yet. That is to say, the sub-committee which was appointed by the Roads Advisory Committee to inquire into the subject of motor taxation has not reported to that Committee. When it does report it will be open to the Committee either to accept its recommendations or to reject them, and, if it accepts the recommendations, it can modify them. If the recommendations of the sub-committee are accepted by the Roads Advisory Committee then they will be submitted to me, and it will be for me, in conjunction with the other Ministers concerned, to accept or reject the proposals, but until the report comes before me formally I have no right to express any view on the matter. I have an open mind on the subject. I think it well to make that statement. as the statement made by Deputy Gorey has given rise to considerable difficulty to the Committee concerned.

In connection with this matter, I was not aware that we had any representative on the Roads Advisory Committee. I would like now to get information as to who is the representative we have nominated?

Mr. Kettle.

If that is so, I apologise. I did not know that this Committee had the appointment of the sub-committee. I made the statement in good faith. I thought the personnel of the Committee was settled by the Department of which the Minister is the head. With regard to the other matter, I think it was on Thursday or Friday last that I asked the Minister if he had received the report from the sub-committee, and he said he had received an interim report. I asked him was he going to act on it, and he said no, and he talked about putting a tax on the weight of the car. The conversation was very short. My memory is very clear about it. I do not know what is in the Minister's mind, but I am quite clear that I asked him was he going to act on the report, and he said no, and he made a reference to the fact that the proper thing to do was to put it on the car-weight.

I made it quite clear to the Deputy that the report was not before me. Therefore, I had not considered the report and the evidence. The other was a matter that arose out of a general discussion as to the equity of one tax or another.

During the discussion the Committee was never mentioned between us.

The sub-committee was.

You never said anything about the sub-committee.

Electioneering exaggeration.

The Minister can only give his decision in public, not in private conversation.

It has served its purpose now.

Top
Share