Minister calls for discretion over use of vans

OCCASIONAL USE of commercially registered vehicles, to bring children to school, travel to church or transport groceries should not bring motorists into conflict with the law, Minister for the Environment John Gormley has said.

He was commenting yesterday on the issuing by his department of a circular stressing commercial vehicles should “not be used for social domestic or pleasure purposes”.

Mr Gormley said he himself had in the past travelled in a commercially registered van, driven by Green Party colleague and Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan.

“I think we need to use our discretion here. Clearly the guards have better things to be doing than telling someone if they are bringing a kid to school in a van.”

Mr Gormley said he did not think there would be a problem if a commercial vehicle was used primarily for commercial purposes, and occasionally for family purposes.

The Minister added the circular had been issued by an assistant principal officer in his department. “It came to this person’s attention – and she acted quite properly – that there was evidence that people were taxing their cars in this way”.

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Pat Kenny, he said: "There has been no new legislation. No new regulations. No new initiative by a Minister or the Green Party".

The Minister separated occasional domestic use of commercial vehicles by farmers and small traders from private owners who seek to switch the tax classification of large jeeps.

He said “all the assistant principal officer was doing was sending out this circular, reminding people of their duties and asking them to be vigilant in this regard”.

The Minister also said “it is nothing to do with people doing things fairly. It is to try and catch people who are doing things unfairly”.

He added: “We are getting into a situation in this country where we have, I suppose the politics of demonisation and of scapegoating.”

He was “concerned about “myths” and “factoids” and disclosed that he had met a man during the recent animal welfare controversy “who said if he had his gun he would shoot me”.

He described the car tax controversy as a “bottle of smoke” and “just complete nonsense”, remarking “we have had two days of misrepresentation” which resulted in his being “inundated with calls” over “what is essentially a non-story”.

He said people now believed they would be stopped in a commercial vehicle. “It is just complete nonsense and there is no evidence for that at all.”

Asked if the Minister was now suggesting the gardaí should turn a blind eye to social and domestic uses of small commercial vans, a spokesman for Mr Gormley said the Minister had made no suggestions for any change in garda attitude.

The spokesman pointed out the current legislation was at least 18 years old, while some of it dated to the 1920s.

Enforcement was entirely a matter for the Garda and the Minister for Justice. As far as Mr Gormley was concerned it was “business as usual”, the spokesman said.