Air quality monitoring in Ireland is carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to meet the requirements of EU Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, known as the CAFÉ Directive. The Directive requires that certain minimum levels of monitoring are carried out for the purposes of assessment and management of air quality. The EPA monitors a range of atmospheric pollutants, based on data obtained from its monitoring stations that form the national ambient air quality network. The Agency's most recent annual air quality report was published in November 2016 and provides an assessment of air quality in Ireland for 2015. Emissions of NOx were monitored at 15 locations across Ireland for the report, and values for all these sites were below the annual limit value. The report cautions however that NOx values may increase in line with growth in economic activity in the State. City centre and urban monitoring sites in Ireland are approaching EU limit values for NO2, and it is possible that we will see limit values exceeded in the near future unless mitigation steps are taken.
A significant contributor to the rise in NOx emissions in recent years throughout the EU has been the higher than expected emissions from the new fleet of road vehicles, particularly diesel vehicles. Over time, discrepancies have come to light between the emissions recorded from vehicles during emissions testing and ‘real’ driving. The European Commission approach has been to revise the test cycle to be more representative of emissions from real-world driving experience (RDE). Ireland fully supported these proposals and their early implementation. The Road Safety Authority, which is under the aegis of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, is the agency centrally involved in this issue on behalf of Ireland.
My Department did not make a submission on the question of the equalisation of excise duty rates between petrol and diesel during the preparation of the Finance Bill, 2016. As an independent statutory body, the question of whether any such submission was made by the Environmental Protection Agency should be addressed directly to the Agency.
