Madam, – Reading Ms Olivia Kelly’s article (“Greens reject charge VRT ‘killed motor trade’”, 30th June) I cannot understand how the Green Party can disagree with Mr Bill Cullen’s statement that “ the Greens killed the motor trade with vehicle registration tax (VRT) changes”.
As a member of the Motor trade for 33 years I can whole-heartedly agree with Mr Cullen. Sure the downturn in the economy has had an effect but the biggest damage was caused by the introduction of the VRT changes last July.
Well done Mr Cullen, at least you give the public our side of the equation, what a pity the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) are not getting the same message across? – Yours, etc
Madam, – As someone who has been self-employed in the motor trade since 1981 (28 years) I find the crocodile tears of the likes of Bill Cullen truly amazing.
Members of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry have been screaming for years for a reduction in vehicle registration tax.
These same ‘champions’ of the ordinary motorist are now willing and able to throw their rattles out of their playpen and blame the collapse of their self made pyramid scheme on the Green Party, a scheme that saw them whip up a frenzy every October to encourage punters to get their order in early for January to “avoid disappointment” in their choice of model and colour of car. This sales pitch is reminiscent of the “get on the property ladder quick” approach of our now shamed property speculators, the banks that funded them, and the politicians that freely took money from both.
A large part of the collapse in the property and motor industry market is due to global trends, the rest can be firmly laid at the door of those that believed that a small dot of an island on the western outback of Europe was the number one economy in the world, would never see a poor day again, and could continue to buy large chunks of Manhattan and Dubai to show that they had arrived!!
I challenge Mr Cullen to state how a reduction in VRT that the SIMI was calling for the past 20 years would have had a differing effect on the prices of second hand cars than the VRT changes that Minister for the Environment John Gormley brought in to encourage the use of fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars? In conclusion, I have a little sympathy for poor Bill who has had to mothball his preferred mode of transport (his helicopter), but he should look to his own industry for the root cause of the problem and not blame the Green Party. – Yours etc,