Car tax warning after charges abolition

ANTI-WATER charges campaigners were last night celebrating a "major climbdown" by the Government, after the announcement of the abolition of water and sewage charges.

However, the motoring lobby has reacted with concern to the possibility of increased car taxes as part of the local government package.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, announced that water and sewage charges would be abolished from January 1st, and that funding from car tax would go directly to local authorities.

The secretary of the Federation of Dublin Anti-Water Charges Campaigns, Mr Gregor Kerr, described the abolition announcement as a "huge victory after the biggest PAYE campaign since the tax marches of the 1970s."

The federation had organised a major campaign for three years of civil disobedience through the non-payment of charges.

Its chairman, Councillor Joe Higgins, said Mr Howlin's announcement was a "massive vindication" of the people who had withstood the pressure to pay the charge.

Two local authorities, Dublin Corporation and Limerick Borough Council, are understood to be the only authorities which do not levy water charges.

In the three Co Dublin authorities it is believed that at least 50 per cent of residents had refused to pay the charges.

But the motoring lobby has reacted with concern to the part of the package which will allow local authorities to raise car tax rates by up to 6 per cent.

The Automobile Association's spokesman, Mr Conor Faughnan, said: "Giving notoriously cash-starved local authorities the power to increase the rate of car tax by up to 6 per cent is likely to add to the car driver's burden in many areas."