Official Statistics for August car sales released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) shows that new car registrations were up 32%.

The figures for the month show that 6,429 cars were registered compared to 4,864 for August 2014 and are currently up 30% to 116,350 for the year 2015.

Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) were up 32% (1,643) on August 2014 (1,248) and year to date are up 52% (20,066) overall. While Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) are up 24% for the month of August (169) compared to the same month last year (136) and are up 10% year to date.

*Commenting on the figurers SIMI Director General Alan Nolan said* "As consumer and business confidence continues to grow in the economy, we see this reflected in the increase registrations for both new cars and commercial vehicles for the month of August. The Industry is moving closer to normal levels of business with registrations continuing to perform month on month. The second registration period should continue to see increased activity for the next few weeks with special sales and finance offers continuing. We would expect that new car sales should exceed 120,000 at the end of the year given current trends.

The Motor Industry is a key contributor to the Exchequer, with nearly €1 billion from new car sales alone so far this year and an additional 5,600 jobs have been created in the Motor Industry since 2014. We would hope that the Government will continue to support recovery in the economy by seeking to improve take-home pay for consumers in the forthcoming budget”.