LOW-FARES AIRLINE RYANAIR has said it has obtained proof that the European Commission believes Ireland’s €10 so-called “travel tax” to be illegal, and had initiated legal proceedings against it.

In a statement this morning, the airline said it had received Freedom of Information records from the Department of Finance which confirmed that the Commission had brought proceedings in March, believing the two-tier tax to be illegal.

The proceedings related to the fact that the tax is charged at different rates depending on the length of the journey; flights within 300km of Dublin (regardless of the Irish airport from which they leave) are only subject to a €2 tax, while a €10 charge is levied to flights travelling further than that.

The European Commission has deemed that the lower rate is illegal, and that if the tax is to be applied, only the standardised higher rate of €10 is legitimate.

Ryanair – which had opposed the next tax, and had made a formal complaint about it in July 2008 – argues that the development means that rather than eliminate the lower tax rate, Ireland must either impose the lower €2 tax on all of its flights, or simply abandon the “damaging” tourist tax which “has failed miserably to generate its forecasted revenues”.

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said the government “must therefore scrap this damaging €10 tax or reduce it to €2 in the December budget.

“Ryanair expects that the Govt will scrap its failed and damaging €10 tourist tax.”

Read the full documents obtained by Ryanair >