The number of licensed private cars on Ireland’s roads is set to top two million for the first time, according to Davy.

The broker said that with new cars licensed up 38% year-on-year through August, the two million total should happen before the end of the year.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland data indicate a 5.4% median increase in annual average daily traffic volumes in 2015 after a 1.9% rise in 2014.

“The pick-up in the number of new licenses means suggests that Irish car sales are now close to half-way back to their 2008 levels,” said Davy economist Conall Mac Coille.

“A feature of the rebound in Irish consumer spending in 2015 has been that households are now sufficiently confident to spend on big-ticket items. Hence, car sales (+19.1%) and furniture and lighting (+14.1%) have led the recovery in retail sales volumes (+8.8%) in 2015.

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“In contrast, defensive sectors like food and beverages (+0.3%) and pharmaceuticals (+2.6%) have lagged behind. Looking forward, wage increases, tax cuts and the ongoing recovery in employment should help push car sales higher.”

The last set of CSO data indicated that there were 1.91m private cars licensed in Ireland in 2013. There were 92,400 new licenses in 2014 and there will be 121,500 in 2015 if the current growth trend sustained through H2.