TYRE DEALERS GATHERED outside Leinster House today calling for government plans to impose tyre levies on motorists and hauliers to be scrapped.
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Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Dennis Naughten has written to the tyre dealers about the proposed levy, which will see private motorists pay €2.80 (€3.18, including VAT) per new tyre.
The Independent Tyre Wholesalers and Retailers Association (ITWRA) and the Irish Tyre Industry Association (ITIA) say the levies will see additional charges of upwards of €15 per tyre for hauliers.
They also say the levies could affect up to 1,000 jobs.
“That’s what the levy will actually mean for motorists, hauliers and others,” tyre industry spokesman Tony O’Brien told TheJournal.ie.
“The tyre industry is worried that it could drive some business over the border, where there is no such levy.
And transport companies coming back through the UK might fit their new tyres there instead.
“We would say there is already a recycling levy. It’s a €1 tyre levy which the tyre industry carries itself. This will hit the private motorist and hit all parts of industry.
For the private motorist, they’re going to pay €3-plus on each new tyre, but the juggernauts and transport companies are going to pay a lot more.
Illegal dumping
The government has licensed a new entity, Repak End of Life Tyres (Repak ELT), to oversee waste tyre regulations. The body is set up to use the money generated by the levies to fund waste management and clean up millions of tyres stockpiled in illegal dumps, warehouses and farms across the State.
Yet tyre dealers also say the levies could lead to more illegal dumping, as hauliers resort to buying tyres on the black market.
In November 2015, when the scheme was first mooted, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen criticised the decision to place a full producer responsibility initiative on waste tyres and “thereby give an effective monopoly on waste tyre disposal to Repak”.
He warned that the scheme and associated levies would fuel evasion and lead to a surge in black market activity, and result in job losses.
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