THE MOTOR industry has called for new Government measures to secure the 50,000 jobs in the sector after new car sales fell 66.5 per cent in January.

The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi) said yesterday the industry was in crisis and, with 3,000 jobs lost in the last quarter of 2008, more were likely to be lost if the Government does not act.

“These latest jobs disappeared with hardly a comment yet represent something in the region of four to five times the number under threat at Waterford Crystal,” according to Alan Nolan, director general of Simi.

“They were shed in the build-up to what should be the busiest time of the year for the car industry.

“We recently surveyed dealers for the outlook for this year and a further 3,000 jobs are hanging by a thread, either on short-term working, temporary lay-off or other reduced working time schemes. Consistently across the industry people have taken pay cuts in the region of 10 per cent.”

Mr Nolan warned that, while the tax revenue from new car sales was €2 billion in 2007, it had fallen to €1.5 billion last year and “it is estimated that, unless action is taken swiftly, revenue from new car sales this year could drop to €500 million.

As part of new measures to support sales, Simi has called for the introduction of a new scrappage scheme for cars of 10 years or older. Mr Nolan said the scheme would assist motorists’ transition to cleaner, greener vehicles.

However, when asked about the matter in the Dáil last week, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said he had “no plans to introduce a car scrappage scheme at this time”.

New car sales in January – normally the busiest month of the year – fell from 47,909 last year to 15,929. Ford topped the sales list last month with 2,853 new cars, followed by Toyota with 2,270. However, for Ford it still represented a drop of 3,390 compared to the first month of last year.

Chevrolet saw its first month sales figures drop from 543 last year to just 54 this January.