A scheme to reduce the level of so-called joyriding will be in place early next year, the Department of the Environment has said.
A spokesman for the Department said the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) recovery scheme would also ensure vehicles that were no longer wanted would be collected and disposed of in an environmentally sound way. The service, he said, would be free.
Speaking in the Dáil last week, Mr Eamon Gilmore TD of the Green Party said there were "disused vehicles which end up burnt-out in the corner of public spaces" across the State.
Known as "company cars," such end-of-life vehicles have been used in "joyriding" incidents. These vehicles have been sold for sums as low as €20 to young drivers, who then drive them at speed and burn them.
The Department spokesman said the ELV recovery scheme was being introduced to comply with an EU directive. He said the Department had been in consultation with the Society of the Motor Industry, the Irish Motor Vehicle Recyclers' Association, the Metal Recyclers' Association and others, and that enabling legislation would be introduced by the autumn.
"The legislation has been almost completed and we hope to have it enacted by the middle of the year and to have the scheme in place by spring next year," he said.
There was a wide network of vehicle dismantlers and recyclers which would take part in the scheme, he said. It would probably be administered by local authorities.
It will mean vehicles are either collected from their final owners by the recycler, or left with the recycler by the owner.
The spokesman said it was envisaged there would be a "nominal recovery tax" added to the price of new motor vehicles to fund the scheme.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said the scheme "should result in a decrease in the number of ELVs being abandoned, thereby reducing their availability for anti-social purposes".
