According to news today from Ireland, there will be no scrappage scheme to stimulate the Irish motor industry. The motoring lobby in Ireland accused the government of letting the sector fall apart, yet government officials maintained that no scrapping scheme would be a part of the budget.

Car sales and car finance sales have slumped in Ireland, a country hit particularly hard by the recession. The Society of the Irish Motor Industry claimed that a scrappage scheme could stop the collapse in jobs, and dozens of backbenchers have supported the scheme.

The SIMI director general Alan Nolan reportedly commented: This is a key element. We've lost 25pc of our working population and if we are to face another year like this, we are looking at the potential for another 10,000 job losses. We need some sort of stimulus that will give people confidence.