Civil servants and county councillors have reacted angrily to a Government plan to reduce mileage rates for high-emission cars.

Under the current system, civil servants get a higher travel allowance for driving cars with bigger engines.

Meanwhile, thousands of civil servants enjoy free parking in city centres around the country.

The Green Party is calling for the system to be updated to encourage people to move towards more environmentally-friendly transport.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Kerry TD Michael Healy Rae and environmental commentator John Gibbons debated the plans.

Deputy Healy Rae said the allowances form part of a civil servant’s income and suggested it was unfair for the Greens to be calling for change at a time when people are suffering financially due to the COVID-19 crisis.

“For politicians to be making suggestions like that at this point in time, I believe it is insensitive, I believe it is wrong and it shows that they are far removed from reality,” he said.

“We can all be coming up with these airy-fairy ideas and it might sound great but there is a price to pay. There is a reality for families who are struggling, who are trying to make ends meet and pay their ESB bills and their mortgages.

“I am really disappointed and upset that the Green Party would be so insensitive to be even suggesting this at this point in time.”

File photo of Michael Healy-Rae. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Mr Gibbons said the suggestion people are relying on travel allowances to feed their children, “takes us into the realm of hyperbole here.”

He said free parking is a “very expensive privilege that anybody in the private sector would pay through the nose for.”

“They are not even charged benefit in kind on that,” he said. “Now, that is a massive allowance.

“You might say good luck to them, but what that is doing, that perverse incentive, is actively encouraging hundreds if not thousands of civil servants to drive into the city to avail of this huge perk that is not available in the private sector.

“This is not about picking on civil servants or anyone else but what we should be looking for here is a level playing field.”

Mileage rates

Mr Gibbons said the current system offers people more money for driving bigger cars – and only a small fraction if they decide to cycle a bike.

“Maybe 20 years ago that made sense, when the purpose of these levies was to try and recover the cost of motoring but we are in a different world now,” he said.

“The world we are now in now in is a world where we are trying to reduce waste and to minimise pollution and, in that world, it makes no sense whatsoever to pay people to drive a larger vehicle.”

Workers

Deputy Healy Rae said Mr Gibbons had “blown his argument out of the water” by suggesting it was perverse to offer civil servants free parking.

“We are talking about people who are making a living,” he said. “We are talking about ordinary decent hard-working people who got an education and were lucky enough and fortunate enough to get a job in the civil service and to use the word perverse for them to have a free car-parking space …

“I mean, damnit, all people are trying to do is make a living and it is difficult enough at present and all I would ask is for the Green Party and their supports to lay off the workers and let them alone.”

Level playing field

Mr Gibbons said he was simply calling for a level playing field.

“What we need to do is eliminate the incentives that currently encourage people into larger vehicles and we want to encourage them into vehicles that are more fuel efficient,” he said.

You can listen back to the debate here: