Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 June 2004
34 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the strategy he intends to pursue to reduce the dangerously high emissions from vehicles in Dublin city centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15908/04]
View answer45 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the measures he is taking to counteract traffic pollution. [16637/04]
View answer73 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps that are being taken to address the serious problem of vehicle pollution identified in the recent annual report of the Environmental Protection Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16517/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 34, 45 and 73 together.
I refer to the reply to Question No. 372 of 1 June 2004. All monitoring data, including that highlighted in the EPA's recent report Ireland's Environment 2004, indicates that Irish ambient air quality is good and with the exception of the unrepresentative College Street site in Dublin, no EU or national standards are being breached. However, as highlighted in the report, it is evident that emissions from road traffic pose the main challenge to the maintenance and improvement of this situation.
A number of policies and measures have been, and continue to be, undertaken on an ongoing basis to reduce traffic-sourced air pollution both within policy areas under my remit, and areas which are the responsibility of other Ministers, most notably the Minister for Transport.
Within my remit the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2002 place primary responsibility for the development of air quality management plans on the relevant local authorities in co-operation with the Environmental Protection Agency. Local authorities also have responsibility to prepare short term air pollution action plans where the EPA considers measures are likely to be needed in the short term where there is a risk of air pollution problems, including from traffic sources. The launch of a new EPA website in January 2004 with up to date publicly accessible data from a number of monitoring stations nationally now allows the public to gauge air quality in relation to current EU and national standards on a real time basis.
Under the EU auto oil programme a series of directives has been implemented which provide for progressively cleaner road fuels, including introduction next year of an element of totally sulphur free fuels ahead of a mandatory EU requirement from 2009. As well as sulphur reduction in both petrol and diesel, benzene, aromatic and olefin levels in petrol have already been significantly reduced, and aromatics will be further reduced again from next year.
Regulations are in place since 2001 requiring the mandatory provision of consumer information on fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions from all new passenger cars. This measure allows consumers to make informed choices in vehicle purchasing on both environmental and fuel efficiency grounds.
Each year since 2000 my Department, the Department of Transport, Sustainable Energy Ireland and participating local authorities have promoted the benefits of alternative transport modes and increased public transport usage through our support of European car free day. Participation by Irish local authorities has been encouraging, rising from an initial five participants in 2000 to 14 participants in 2003. The event takes place annually on 22 September and this year the focus will be on enhancing commuter mobility and deepening the involvement of schools, based, inter alia, on alternatives to the car for the school run.
Finally, during Ireland's Presidency of the EU a first reading agreement was reached between the Council of Environment Ministers and the European Parliament on a proposal for a directive relating to arsenic, cadmium, nickel and polycyclic aromatics hydrocarbons, PAHs, in ambient air. PAHs are sourced, inter alia, from traffic pollution.
The Minister for Transport is responsible for measures in relation to vehicle standards, reductions in traffic congestion, roads improvements including by-passes, the Dublin Port tunnel, the M50 completion, Luas, rail, DART and bus upgrades and demand management measures all of which potentially contribute to emissions reductions from vehicle traffic in the transport section.
