The new Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, has said he will consider pressing the Department of Finance to introduce a tax break for cars fitted with additional safety features, such as multiple airbags and automatic stability systems.
Ireland's Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) means that, at present, when motorists order extra safety features on their new vehicles, they are hit with both VAT and VRT on these additions. This means such equipment is often never ordered.
Several vehicle importers in Ireland have said they have been forced to drop safety features which come as standard in other countries in order to keep the final tax inclusive cost of their cars competitive.
They claim that, with a tax concession for additional safety equipment, they would be able to import safer vehicles at little or no extra cost to the motorist.
Speaking exclusively to The Irish Times, the Minister said that such a tax break was "definitely a possibility".
A spokesperson for the Department of Finance, which would be ultimately responsible for its introduction, said that it could not rule such a tax break in or out so close to the next budget.
Cullen's remarks have been welcomed by safety organisations.
"Any incentive designed to improve safety features or remove barriers to fitting them on cars has our full support," said Mr Brian Farrell, spokesperson for the National Safety Council.
Mr Eddie Murphy, managing director of Ford Ireland, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that a side-effect of our present VRT system is to make our cars less safe than they should be.
"A particular gripe is our inability to incorporate the latest safety technology in cars, because the VRT they bear makes them prohibitive to the everyday customer."
It is a commercial reality that safety features carry less appeal to the customer than extras such as air conditioning or alloy wheels, said Murphy, who is chairman of the representative body for vehicle importers. "Exempting safety-related items from VRT would help change this, to the benefit of all road-users."
Referring to Ford's directional lighting system on its new Focus, he added: "The €600 price tag we've had to attach to this feature is largely a function of VRT and VAT in combination.
"If VRT were revisited, we could consider making it a standard item. Given the prevalence of night-time fatalities on our roads, it should surely be encouraged. The same goes for features such as ESP."
A precedent exists in offering tax breaks to incentivise the purchase of certain cars. A VRT reduction of 50 per cent on hybrid cars was introduced in 2001 to encourage motorists into greener vehicles.
In response to questions as to whether he supported a similar plan for safety equipment, the Minister said: "The potential you make for expanding that thinking process for much greater safety in cars is a possibility."
He said he is committed to reducing the carnage on Ireland's roads. "I will look at everything that I think can conceivably improve road safety," he said. "I would exclude nothing."
He also reiterated the Government's determination to stamp out speeding in an attempt to reverse the trend of increasing numbers being killed on Ireland's roads. "We have to reverse that very quickly," said the Minister. "We are already talking with various players, including the Garda and the Department of Justice . . . and we have various plans in place to upscale the visibility of road safety, especially on bad roads."
The computerisation of the penalty points and the lowering of the speed limit to 50mph (80.5kph) on non-national roads will help, said Mr Cullen. With the need to police the new speed limits critical to the success of the initiative, the Minister said he would be pressing the gardaí to concentrate more on dangerous country roads.
"I'm not convinced that motorways, where you tend to see a lot of the Garda sitting, is the answer," he said. "The answer is a greater focus clearly on the areas of where the bad roads are, and we have to get people driving slower on these roads."