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The motor industry says a car scrappage scheme will generate jobs and taxes. Critics say it’s a short-term strategy, bad for the environment. And politicians say . . . different things.
THE CAR DEALERS
‘A scrappage scheme is very important for our jobs, our income and our survival’
Gabriel Keane of Windsor Motors has let 150 staff go over the past 18 months and 300 others have had wage cuts or are on short time. “A scrappage scheme is very important for our jobs, our income and our survival,” he says. “It’s all about the next 12 months. Once we get into 2011 we will be in a better place – at least, that’s the hope.”
He insists the green agenda will be well served by any scheme. “Customers are coming in now and are looking only at the green cars; the ones with the lowest emissions and those that attract the lowest car tax. That is completely new and a complete U-turn for consumers.”
He describes the past 18 months as “horrendous” and adds “we have lost a lot of very good people, people who will struggle to find any work out there. It’s a tough place to be but we have no real choice but to try and stick it out and survive as best we can.”
Alan Nolan of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry says the scrappage scheme is “about survival and jobs”. He says 10,000 jobs have gone this year and warns that if nothing is done to stimulate the sector, the same number will go again in 2010.
“It is about sending a message to an industry which employs tens of thousands of people that we are beginning to move into a better place, to give employers the confidence to carry their staff through next year. We’re not talking about reinflating a bubble: quite the opposite, in fact, because at present the market is artificially low.”
He points out that Government revenue from car sales has fallen by €1.5 billion to €500 million. “What we are proposing will give the opportunity to regain some tax. The average car generates €7,000 in revenue for the Exchequer so if it gives back €2,000, the State still has €5,000 to collect.”
