What's the news?
All of a sudden, we seem unable to stop buying new cars. After the dreadful years of 2009 to 2013, when sales struggled to reach even 80,000 per annum and the market was being significantly propped up by fleet and corporate sales (which generally have slimmer profit margins than direct retail sales) 2015 was a bumper year - 124,945 new cars were sold, representing a 30 per cent increase over 2014's figures.
And now January 2016 has improved on that by another third - new car registrations are up by 33 per cent, to 39,812, in the past 31 days. That's a number not far off the full year total for 2009...
Van sales are also up by 34 per cent (indeed Peugeot Ireland told us today that the Partner van is their second best selling model overall right now) while heavy goods vehicles saw a rise in registration of 138 per cent, although that was from an artificial low last year brought about by administrative issues surrounding such trucks and lorries.
All those figures come from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), which launched its quarterly review of the last three months of 2015 today. Speaking at the event, Brendan Howlin TD Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform said: "the Motor Industry has been a key driver in the recovery of the Irish economy with car sales alone contributing to over €1 billion to the Irish Exchequer. Also it is particularly encouraging to see the growth in employment and apprenticeships within the sector. The Motor Industry has faced some challenging years and I am delighted to see the increase in car sales last year and this momentum continuing into 2016."
SIMI claims that new vehicle sales contributed €1.9-billion to Government coffers last year, while the motor industry as a whole shovelled €5.4-billion into Michael Noonan's money-bags.
Economist Jim Power, author of the Review said: "Looking ahead to 2016, the key drivers of new car sales look set to remain positive. New car registrations, which have started the year strongly, should be capable of expanding by at least 22 per cent, giving total sales of 152,500. This forecast could turn out to be conservative."
The industry is also expecting a major jobs bonus from the increase in sales. Start Monday is a recruitment agency specialising in the automotive sector and Suzanne Sheridan, its founder, said: "you have to go back to 2008 to see a month as strong as this January's. Based on performance so far this year, initial industry predictions of 150,000 car sales this year may have to be revised upwards. With every 1,000 new cars sold, 130 new jobs are created in the sector. On this basis, 2016 could see an additional 4,500 new jobs created. Within the last month, sales, aftersales and marketing roles have been in unusually high demand, and there is a strong interest from returning immigrants looking to go back to work in the automotive sector in Ireland."
On the good news/bad news front, while the overall average price of a new car declined by 3 per cent, and diesel and petrol prices have fallen by 11 per cent and 8 per cent, the cost of insurance has taken a swingeing uptick - by 30 per cent.