New car sales are now at their lowest level in over 20 years, with sales of 47,000 cars for the first six compared with 124,000 in the first-half of last year.
According to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), the market has fallen by 62 per cent.
Eddie Murphy, managing director of Ford Ireland, said: "57,000 units is where we see the market ending up. That’s the lowest total since 1987 and a massive drop of 95,000 sales on last year. That’s well below the viability threshold for dealers out there."
The dramatic fall in sales has resulted in several dealers being forced to close, most recently the Tom Hogan Motor Group with the likely loss of nearly 200 jobs.
The downturn in the Irish market is greater than in most other European markets and has led some in the industry, most notably motor retailer Bill Cullen, to blame the excess downturn here on changes to the new car tax system introduced last July.
This change linked the level of tax to a car's carbon emissions. Speaking on RTÉ radio earlier this week, Mr Cullen accused the Green Party of instigating the changes.
“[The Green Party] killed the motor trade, people can’t buy a new car and it’s all because of the Greens.”
A Green Party spokesman said there was no evidence that the VRT change led to the collapse in car sales.
