The motor industry said yesterday that the implementation of increasing motor taxation as outlined in the recent ESRI report would affect Irish social and economic life and reduce Exchequer revenue and employment.
In its response to the report, The Fiscal System and the Polluter Pays Principle, Mr Cyril McHugh, chief executive of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, said what was being proposed would be damaging to society.
The report, he said, had underestimated the importance of the car in the social and economic fabric of society.