SIMI: Recovery of Motor Industry put back

The Minister’s decision to ignore the Motor Industry’s Swappage proposal will result in the further export of Irish jobs and tax revenues to the UK.

Alan Nolan

Alan Nolan, SIMI Director General said, “The Industry is extremely disappointed that a Swappage scheme wasn’t announced in today’s Budget, a scheme which would have given motorists a VRT discount off the price of a new car.”

“We have to see this as a huge opportunity missed by the Government. We put forward a detailed, well-costed plan that would have provided more than 2,000 extra jobs, particularly focused on young people and it would have netted the Government an extra €126 million. This Industry was also committed to making a significant contribution to drive Swappage and to ensure the creation of these additional jobs, which won’t happen now. Recovery in the Motor Industry has been put back by at least another year.”

Paul Linders

 Paul Linders, SIMI President said, “It is hugely disappointing that the State has ignored the difficulties of our Sector which is probably the largest tax generator in the State and it is likely that this will lead to further significant job losses in our Industry, instead of the employment growth that could have been delivered.”

“50,000 used cars will be imported this year because many people can’t step up from their old car to a new one and this has resulted in Irish consumers contributing over €150 million in VAT to the UK Exchequer and that number of used car sales has supported over 4,000 jobs in the UK. In the current climate, I really cannot understand why the Government has not considered it important to retain those jobs and VAT payments in Ireland.”