This article is from page 45 of the 2012-01-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 45 JPG
NEWLY released figures show that the Clare Motor Tax Office issued a total of 126,600 tax discs during 2011. The figures represent a seven per cent decrease in the total number (135,800) of tax discs issued during 2010.
While the figure looks excessively high, particularly when considering that the most recent census population figures for Clare have the entire population of the county at 116,000, the high number of tax discs for the county is explained by the incidence of two-car families. It has also been noted by motor tax officials that more and more people are now taxing their cars for short periods of time, with three-month and six-month discs proving very popular.
The Clare Motor Tax Office, which moved from Francis Street in Ennis to Aras Contae an Chláir in late 2011, is responsible for the issue of all vehicle licences and driver licences for County Clare.
Clare County Council has also issued an appeal this week to motorists to consider using alternative payment methods, including the postal and online tax services. The Clare Motor Tax Office this week witnessed an increase in the number of customers and phone calls, leading to longer queues and waiting times.
Pauline Keane of the Clare Motor Tax Office praised staff who had successfully managed to keep waiting times at local area offices down to a minimum during 2011.
“Waiting times could be further reduced by members of the public choosing to use alternative payment methods including our online tax service which is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week at www.motortax.ie. Customers may also avail of the Motor Tax Department’s postal service,” she explained.
The service was the first Motor Tax Office in the country to receive a Quality Service Management Award (Q-Mark) in 2004. In late 2009, the service was named overall winner of the Government Health and Social Services category at the National Quality Excellence Awards.