I showed here that very few boat-owners paid the Mineral Oil Tax for 2009 (38) and 2010 (41). I now have the figures for 2011 (MOT paid by 1 March 2012) and I can report that there has been a very significant change, of 46%, in the numbers paying the tax.
Unfortunately the change was downwards, from 41 to 22. The Revenue Commissioners tell me that
[…] there were 22 returns received by 1 March 2012 for 2011, amounting to €53,398.58 MOT [Mineral Oil Tax] on 141,503.29 litres oil.
That’s an average of 6432.1 litres each, which is a lot; I suspect that much of the total came from the hire fleet, with less than twenty private owners making returns.
This ridiculous tax should be scrapped; those operating private pleasure craft should be required to use non-rebated diesel.
Irish waterways history 
How much was paid by non-hire operators?
It is not possible to say. The main point is that the number of returns is several orders of magnitude lower than the number of boats for which returns should have been made. bjg
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