Southern ireland is EuroZone what do you expect you have to pay for the bureaucrats in Brussels
Utter nonsense.
How EU member states raise tax is their business; you really can't blame the EU for this.
In France (also as you may have noticed, in the EU) we no longer have an annual road tax. Is that down to the EU ? No.
So Ireland has decided to raise tax revenue from those who buy cars which are deemed to be polluting. That's entirely up to them.
