Roderic O’Gorman, the head of the Green Party, stated that his party will keep putting forth “meaningful proposals” despite opposition from Coalition partners over the advancement of a new traffic plan, reports Independent.
The Green Party’s ideas for increased anti-pollution fees on automobiles and large commercial trucks are being blocked by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the run-up to the general election.
Just before the general election, the Green Party wants the Cabinet to approve a plan to impose extra levies on drivers in order to alleviate traffic congestion, reports Independent.
But before the nation’s elections, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are adamant that they would not approve the plan that former Green Party leader and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has draughted.
As more people switch to electric vehicles, the approach offers ideas to close the road tax revenue shortfall, Minister O’Gorman said during the ceremonial opening of the new Snugborough Interchange in Blanchardstown, reports Independent.
The Minister, however, maintained that this was not a “taxation document.”
“It does flag the issue that as more people move to e-cars as we have fewer petrol and diesel cars, VRT, motor tax is going to decrease, and that’s big chunk of the income. And we are going to look at ways of how we fill that gap. And this talks about some of the potentials,” Minister O’Gorman said, reports Independent.
The minister went on to say that although Coalition partners had expressed disapproval of the plan, he did not believe the government would “down tools.”
“There has been pushback, yeah, and there’s been pushback on some other pieces as well that we’ve been proposing in terms of the road strategy. Look, my view was we work all the way to the end of Cabinet, to the end of this Government. We continue to bring meaningful proposals forward,” reports Independent.
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