INN, the news service that supplies news to lots of local stations like Shannonside, reported yesterday morning that the Green Party were proposing to add 20c to the price of a litre of petrol.

This is not true. INN misread the press release.

The actual proposal is:

The abolition of motor tax, to be replaced with a fuel levy of 2c that will be phased in each year over 10 years

The abolition of VRT, to be replaced by a levy that reflects the fuel efficiency of the car

The idea behind these proposals is that people will pay for motoring based on how much the use their car and how fuel efficient their cars are, rather than as is currently the case, where people pay a flat tax based on their engine size, even if they only use their car for one day in the year.

Under the draft Green Party figures, a person buying an average car (Ford Focus 1.6) and travelling 15,000km per year, would save €2,214 over five years (apr €443 per year). A person buying a 1.9L car converted to run on plant oils could save about €6,094 under the same conditions (€1,219 per year), while somebody buying a new 4.2L Range Rover would pay an extra €4,349 (€870 per year).