What's the news?
Figures released by Oireachtas.ie show that the Government makes over €1 billion annually from motor tax.
The figures were revealed by Environment Minister, Alan Kelly, in response to a parliamentary question from independent TD Mattie McGrath and they show that since 2010 motorists have added €1 billion to the coffers each and every year.
The peak was in the period July 2013 - June 2014 as motorists rushed to either tax their vehicles or declare them off-road after new legislation was introduced to close a widely used loophole whereby drivers would tax their cars on an on-off-on basis. The legislation change resulted in a €1.166 billion tax take for the period as compared to €1.051 billion for the July 2014 - June 2015 period.
The legislation change also accounts for the discrepancy in tax take versus cars registered with 2.51 million vehicles accounted for in the 2015 period (some of them written off-road) compared to the 2.40 million in 2012.
Don't go thinking that €1 billion will be spent on improving the infrastructure though as the Dail spending watchdog was told last year that €439 million of funding for Irish Water came directly from motor tax with a further €400 million expected to be paid to the semi-state utility this year from motor tax.