End of `ridiculous' tax widely welcomed

The Government's decision to abolish the £5 travel tax on air and sea journeys has been warmly welcomed by the travel industry. The move, however, will not affect certain airport taxes and surcharges imposed by some carriers.

Last night a spokeswoman for Ryanair, which has consistently opposed the Government tax and waged a high-profile attack on other charges, said the company was "delighted".

"We have always referred to the travel tax as the `ridiculous tax' in all our statements and are happy to see it go. Air travel is now an essential part of business life; to have this tax was very unfair."

The ferry company, Stena Line, Dun Laoghaire and Rosslare, had strongly opposed the Government travel tax.

Last night Mr Eamonn Hewitt, for Stena, said the company charged no other terminal taxes or surcharges and would be pleased to see the abolition of the tax.

A spokesman for Aer Lingus, Mr Declan Connolly, said Aer Lingus was naturally pleased to see the tax abolished.

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said the travel tax had been the subject of a challenge from the European Commission on the grounds that it was not applicable to domestic journeys or to Northern Ireland.

Because of this the Commission contended that it "is discriminatory under the EU Treaty in that it favours domestic journeys compared to overseas or cross-frontier trips," the Minister said. The Minister added that he expected the operators to "use this development to keep access transport costs low".