The motor trade can be expected put in some hard lobbying in the run up to the December Budget for tax breaks to maintain the sales momentum created by the temporary £1,000 vehicle scrappage incentive, which the Government says will be discontinued at the end of the year. This short-term scheme, introduced two years ago, covered cars of 10 years and older and was payable on the purchase of a new car. The initiative helped to create around 4,000 jobs in the motor industry and gave a useful fillip to new car sales. The Society of the Irish Motor Industry, while accepting that the scheme could only be of limited duration, said that its withdrawal places jobs at risk. This week the SIMI urged the Minister for Finance to reduce vehicle registration tax to 20 per cent in the upcoming Budget.

The matter raises the intriguing question of the meaning of the word temporary when related to government policy involving both outflows and inflows of revenue. The Government tends to sticks firmly to stated policy when schemes like car scrappage payments represent a drain on the Exchequer. Some years ago the Government of the day introduced a temporary little taxation measure, pledged to be of limited duration, in response to the need for an immediate cash injection to help the exchequer in a time of short-term economic difficulty. It was called Deposit Interest Retention Tax, or DIRT. Needles to say it's still firmly in place.