Council to close motor tax offices

A decision to end the local motor taxation office service in both Duleek and Dunshaughlin has been greeted with a furious reaction from councillors from east and south Meath. The surprise move by the council means that motorists who normally utilise the local offices to tax their vehicles will, in future, have to travel to the motor tax office in Navan to do so. Councillors, meeting in Navan on Monday, denounced the move with Cllr Jimmy Cudden, Duleek, saying it was 'the straw that broke the camel"s back' as regards the gradual removal of services from the council"s local civic offices. Councillors were told the removal of the facilities from the two local offices was down to the inadequacy of the broadband connection between the offices and the Dept of the Environment"s motor tax centre in Shannon, Co Clare. Over the last few years, the policy of bringing services out to the people via local offices has been rowed back on, Cllr Cudden observed. One of the most important services to be removed from the Duleek office had been the planning dept. Councillors had been told there would be access to hard copy files and computers in the local office but, he said, 'there"s no access to anything in Duleek'. Now with the news about the closure of the motor tax offices in two centres, hundreds of cars will have to join the existing traffic jams in Navan as they tried to get to the tax office. To add to their woes, there is not sufficient parking at the County Hall car park at Railway Street to accommodate these extra vehicles, councillors heard. If one more service was removed from Duleek, it would be the end of the office there, Cllr Cudden warned. Equally angry and disappointed was Cllr Nicholas Killian, Ratoath, over the removal of local services from the Dunshaughlin electoral area. Already, Ashbourne had been 'denuded' of local services, he claimed. It had no motor tax office although it was the county"s second-largest town. It appeared that, for the county council, 'Meath ends at Garlow Cross', he said. Cllr Killian deplored the removal of services such as motor tax from local offices which had been built and opened when money was scarce. What, for example, were people such as a 75 years-old neighbour, who did not have a computer, to do if they could not access services in Dunshaughlin, he asked. He said that use of the postal services would not be a cost-saving measure but would cost the county council an extra €45,000 in posting out tax discs to motorists. The 'flagship office' in Duleek was now 'a sinking ship,' said Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher. Also angry at the move were Cllrs Oliver Brooks, Tom Kelly and Charles Bobbett. Cllr Brian Fitzgerald demanded to be told how the county council could expect people to come into Meath and set up businesses if measures such as these were taken. He called on Meath County Manager Tom Dowling to resign his position on the Local Government Computer Services Board (LGCSB). Mr Dowling is chairman but told the council his term would expire soon. Cllr Fitzgerald proposed that councillors reject the removal of the motor tax facility from the local offices. Councillors were informed that technical reasons associated with the broadband connection were behind the move. A top-level meeting had been held in September to discuss the use of Government networks to replace the frame relay service for motor tax offices. Among those present were the LGCSB"s representatives and personnel from the Departments of Transport and Environment, Heritage and Local Government. There was serious concern, from a security viewpoint, about the use of Eircom"s 'BIP Reach" service to back up Government networks for provision of motor tax services. The central point for these services for the country is at Shannon. Members heard that the 'BIP Reach" solution had been abandoned. In the short term, the existing ISDN connections would provide the necessary backup for motor tax purposes, even though this might be at a reduced level of service. Each local authority which did not have a minimum 10mB broadband connection to Government networks was told to proceed with a tender process to procure this. Each local authority was also to proceed with a tender process to procure 'a second, diverse connection to Government networks for resilience purposes'. Meath County Council finance officer Fiona Lawless told councillors this decision had been imposed. She added that 95 per cent of local authorities in Ireland had one motor tax office. Only Meath, Donegal and Wicklow had local offices. The cost of returning the service to the local offices would be up to €200,000 per year. However, the measure is to be reviewed in the new year.