The day of the traditional breaker's yard will come to a close in the next couple of years with stringent new EU rules on dismantling vehicles which have reached the end of their life.
As in many areas of life, the scrapyard will feel the cold wind of a Brussels directive which makes carmakers responsible for taking old cars out of circulation and destroying them without affecting the environment. The yard behind the garage will no longer be acceptable as a place to dispose of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). The investment required to do the job properly will be beyond most back-street operators.
Already, at least one major Irish player in the waste disposal business is working towards setting up the first state-of-the-art system for stripping cars to their basic materials, some hazardous, and selling them on for recycling where that's possible.
Between five and 10 of these facilities will be required here as the ELV legislation comes into play. The Government says it will have the enabling legislation ready by the autumn.
The Green Party spokesperson on the environment, Cllr Mary White of Borris, Co Carlow, says she welcomes the EU directive. Last week ske called for the minister to ensure speedy implementation of legislation, so that Ireland can comply for once with an EU directive "without getting a rap on the knuckles".
"For far too long, among the most enduring blots on the Irish landscape have been the rusting carcases of cars and other vehicles dumped in ditches, fields and hillsides," she says.
"It would be a really good thing if everybody, across party lines and regardless of commercial interest, got together behind this legislation to ensure that it gets passed as quickly and efficiently."
Suggestions have been made in the Dáil that the motor industry here might be considering dumping as many old cars out of the system as possible before the legislation is passed, in an effort to evade responsibility for them.
The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, said he didn't think this was a possibility. The industry has done "much good work" on the issue, he said.