Taxation pays the price for unfairness

REARVIEW: THE REVELATION THAT the number of cars being seized because their owners don’t have tax, insurance or a valid NCT is soaring comes as no great surprise. As the recession bites ever deeper, many people find themselves unable or unwilling to pay their dues.

Obviously, the increase can largely be put down to better enforcement by the Garda. But the fact that so many drivers are prepared to take the risk of losing their cars can also be seen as symptomatic of a growing malaise and resentment within society. People have little faith in the integrity of our institutions after years of rule by incompetents.

Take motor tax, for instance. Mention the word “tax” and the majority of people think not of funding schools and hospitals, but of bank bailouts and corruption. So you can understand someone’s reluctance to pay motor tax when the perception persists that it’s going straight towards lining the pockets of an anonymous German banker. A far better option would be to abolish motor tax and replace it with a levy on fuel. This would save millions on administration and enforcement, make everyone pay based on actual usage, and allow those who can’t afford big upfront tax payments to spread the cost over time.

And then there's the NCT. While nobody would disagree that getting dangerous vehicles off our roads is vital, there have long been murmurings that NCT as it stands is not up to the job. The recent Prime Time Investigatesprogramme seemed to support these suspicions. Even before the whistleblowers started coming out of the woodwork, everyone had heard tales of cars failing on a whim for stupid reasons or passing when they were blatantly faulty.

The whole NCT system has to be overhauled to restore public confidence. Otherwise, more and more people will choose to take the risk of driving untested and possibly unroadworthy cars, with predictable results.