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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 1 May 1980

Vol. 320 No. 3

Written Answers. - Lead Content of Petrol.

64.

asked the Minister for the Environment if he will ensure that the lead content of petrol used in the State is reduced to the level of the current EEC directive in which Ireland has been given derogation.

As I indicated in a written reply to a question on 6 December 1979, Article 7 of the directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states concerning the lead content of petrol provides that petrol with a lead content not exceeding 0.64 grammes per litre may be placed on the market in Ireland for a period of five years from 1 January 1981, whereas in the other member states the maximum permitted lead content of petrol placed on the market from 1 January 1981 will be 0.40 grammes per litre. The derogation in favour of Ireland was sought because the large investment which would have been required to enable the Whitegate refinery to produce petrol with a lead content conforming with the directive would have placed the continued operation of the refinery in jeopardy. In addition, imports of crude oil would have had to be increased to produce petrol with a lower lead content and there would also be an increase in petrol consumption, estimated at 10 per cent. The petrol refined at Whitegate represented about 55 per cent of the total consumption of petrol in Ireland in 1978. The remaining 45 per cent was imported from the other member states which are obliged to comply fully with the directive.

I am satisfied as a result of the monitoring of levels of atmosphere lead at three stations in the Dublin area that the derogation which Ireland obtained from the terms of the directive will not result in levels of atmospheric lead above the two microgram per cubic metre level proposed in the draft EEC directive on air quality standards for lead which is accepted as a level below which human health and the environment are not adversely affected.

Levels of atmospheric lead are kept under continuous review by my Department in association with Dublin Corporation and the Eastern Health Board.

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