Feckoff.net

Brian Lenihan just delivered his Budget 2009 speech. One again, Ireland’s motorists get screwed. He’s added 8 cents per litre on to petrol, and has increased the VAT rate by 0.5%, which brings our fuel prices roughly into parity with UK prices. He’s also hiking motor tax by 4% for all cars below 2.5 litres or in CO2 bands A-D, depending on which idiotic system your car falls into. Cars with bigger engines will be hit with an extra 5%, because as we all know, big engines are the work of the devil. Tax on diesel fuel has stayed where it is, most likely because they’re trying to shove everyone over to diesel just to try and minimise their already massive Kyoto CO2 bill. Since the other pollutants in diesel aren’t counted for that, they don’t care about them.

Oh, there’s also this: “Levy of €200 on employees for car parking in major urban areas” - because our public transport system is so fucking awesome.

Pretty much the only good thing about motoring in Ireland was our relatively cheap (by EU standards) fuel, and now they’ve crushed that. We’ve got awful roads and punitive taxes on everything to do with driving.

Here’s a quick run-down of what other changes they’re making.