The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) have welcomed the broad strategy contained in today’s Budget, which carries a strong message that the Irish economy has now moved out of the austerity period.

Alan Nolan, Director General of SIMI “We have seen the early signs of recovery in our Industry this year with increased sales that have delivered the highest registrations since the recession started in 2008. In this context we particularly welcome the Minister’s statement that none of the motoring taxes have been increased.

In our Pre-Budget submission SIMI had outlined the importance for this Budget to deliver stability for businesses, through not increasing taxes and seeking to improve consumer confidence, both of which are necessary to support economic recovery in 2015. The Budget measures announced today mean that we can be confident about the year ahead.  The increase in consumer spending power, resulting from today’s Budgetary measures, will help to increase business activity, creating thousands of extra jobs in our Sector, and will boost Exchequer tax revenues in 2015.

Alan Nolan, continued; “The Motor Industry has seen an encouraging recovery over the past 10 months with increased sales delivering €783million to the Irish exchequer along with the provision of 3,000 new jobs in the sector.  We are confident that with the stability, that should result from the Budget, we can continue on this upward trend in 2015.

“We would be hopeful that with these conditions the Motor Industry can deliver in excess of €100million more from VRT and VAT from new car sales in 2015 and will be able to create a further 1,500 jobs in towns around the country, which would represent a further €36 million for the Exchequer,” he said.