Kelly under fire from Fine Gael backbenchers over tyre tax
TDs are worried about the hike of €14 a car coming up on the doorsteps ahead of the general election, the Sunday Business Post has reported.
Environment Minister Alan Kelly is facing opposition from Fine Gael backbenchers to his new “tyre tax” of around €14 per car
The Sunday Business Post reports that Kelly is introducing a new scheme to tackle the scourge of illegal tyre dumping.
It will require tyre retailers to pay a disposal charge of €2.80 per tyre from next summer onwards. The charge will be passed onto custom
ers with VAT added on and will add almost €14 to the cost of replacing four car tyres.
But Fine Gael backbenchers are concerned about the hikes in costs of car, tractor and lorry tyres coming up on the doorsteps ahead of the general election.
Fine Gael Limerick TD Patrick O’Donovan said that a delegation of tyre retailers had recently met Fine Gael TDs about the new scheme.
“We’re concerned about it. We don’t want to see the improvements in road tax for hauliers in the Budget adversely impacted by this,” he said.
But Kelly is planning to remove the option for tyre retailers to declare that they have disposed of the tyres themselves and to force them to use the new scheme operated by Repak.
Both the Irish Tyre Industry Association and the Independent Tyre Wholesalers and Retailers Association, who sell around three million tyres per year between them, have declared their outright opposition to the new charges.
Donovan said that talks between them and the department had to be restarted with a “blank sheet”.
“There has to be a middle ground between themselves and the department. They are not a group that wants to see tyres hurled on the ditch,” he said.
Independent Tyre Wholesalers and Retailers Association president Eamon Daly said the new €2.80 charge per car tyre would raise the cost of disposal from the current €1 rate.
“It’s a new tax because it hasn’t been there before. It’s three times the charge,” he said.
But Kelly’s position is that motorists are already paying on the double, through a non-legally binding contribution to retailers for the disposal of their used tyres and then for the council clean ups of stockpiles of waste tyre.
A spokesman for Kelly said a study had found that between 25-50 per cent of waste tyres were not accounted for with widespread illegal dumping. He said both tyre industry bodies had been invited to re-join the working group to design the finer detail of the scheme.
“This department is very confident that the proposed arrangements, which mirror those in 20 other member states, will be supported by the members of the European Tyre Rubber Manufacturers Association who make up approximately 50 per cent of the tyres placed on the Irish market,” he said.
The Sunday Business Post reports that Repak has set up a new company called Repak End of Life Tyres to manage the scheme. It is operating the new scheme from for tyre retailers, who will have to submit information on the number of tyres they are selling and how they dispose of them. The introduction of the €2.80 charge per car tyre sold is due to be introduced next summer.
One of Repak End of Life Tyres’ directors is Kevin Farrell, who is the former president of the Irish Tyre Industry Association (ITIA).
He signed up his own tyre company Squarefit, which operates three “Tyre and Service Superstore” outlets in Dublin, to the new scheme last July.
In a statement, Repak End of Life Tyres said Farrell had been president of the Irish Tyre Industry Association when his company became a member of the scheme.
“At that time, the Irish Tyre Industry Association (ITIA) had been working closely with the Department of the Environment and Repak End of Life Tyres on the introduction of a Producer Responsibility Initiative scheme for the tyre industry,” the Sunday Business Post reports
Farrell resigned his position on September 10, when the ITIA voted to opt out of the engagement process with the Department and Repak End of Life Tyres. Repak End of Life Tyres said that Farrell’s position as a member director was unpaid and voluntary.
“Despite assertions to the contrary, the tyre industry is interested in being compliant. Repak End of Life Tyres is already working with the tyre industry and welcomes the fact that members of the tyre industry have already registered with the scheme,” it said.