Mr. Jerry Kiersey:

I speak as a practical user of the end result of all the technical offerings from the experts. Professor King of the University of Aston delivered a lecture in the Mansion House in 2011 under the auspices of the EPA in which she said everything counted. Some 70% of CO2 emissions are from cars and light vans, and not from trucks. There is a huge difference between what can be achieved in the case of urban trucks as distinct from long-distance trucks. Long-distance trucks are responsible for 90% of Ireland's exports and it is extremely important that nothing is done to increase the cost base for them by adding in unrealistic options. I am not a technician but I have an issue with the difference between LNG and compressed natural gas, CNG, which has a much shorter range in a truck than LNG. Refuelling stations for gas in the UK are LNG so, while CNG would work extremely well in the local urban environment and over some longer distances within Ireland, it will not work on other longer distances.

We see the urban environment being used for the alternatives that are available. I learned to drive in a 1916 electric bread van. Where have they gone? We have been required since 2014 to buy Euro 6 trucks and when I first got them the only thing that concerned us were the technical difficulties, such as the increased running costs etc. However, we have learned that they have huge amounts of technology on board that can be used extremely usefully, as long as the driver is made aware of them and trained accordingly. We have talked to the RSA about this and the European Commission is now talking about requiring all HGV drivers to have a HGV driver's certificate of professional competence, CPC. The current course is almost irrelevant but there is talk of drivers being trained in the new technology. Most of the owners of Euro 6 trucks are oblivious to what is available on board and it takes some time to learn it. Indeed, local dealers usually do not know what is on board these trucks coming from Sweden or wherever they are made.

We use a SEAI-sponsored course to train our drivers at a company in Dublin. The SEAI pays for it and has run these courses before. I have sent information to the committee on the training available to drivers and the results that can be achieved, which are quite significant.

There is a 15% to 20% fuel gain available if the technology is used correctly.

It is extremely important that there is a broader spread and the RSA has a significant role to play in terms of driver training. Indeed, all of us in the industry have a significant role to play in that regard. I have forwarded a paper to the committee secretariat from the Financial Timeson the state of the market in Norway for electric vehicles and hybrids. It is an extremely important read for this committee in terms of understanding what is happening there, particularly with regard to the huge financial incentives being provided for electric vehicles. The market is very divided on the end results but Norway is way ahead of us.

Finally, most of our trucks were running on rape seed oil, an Irish produced, natural biofuel. As the charts I have provided show, rape seed oil is one of the lowest sources of emissions. We moved to rape seed oil under an initiative begun by the former Minister Noel Dempsey, namely the Motor Oil Tax Relief, MOTR, schemes, known as MOTR 1 and MOTR 2. We converted 60% of our trucks to run on Irish rape seed oil but that was finished completely in the 2008 budget. We are overlooking opportunities that are available in Ireland for an Irish-grown fuel that has every reason to be supported into the future. I am not sure if it will work in the newer trucks but there are lots of older trucks in Ireland that could be running on it. As Professor King said earlier, everything counts. The targets that this country and Europe must meet are serious and it will take enormous effort.

What has been omitted completely in all of the discussions is effective traffic management. That does not exist in Ireland. We have a hodge-podge of different people doing different things. The most basic point about traffic light systems is that they increase pollution. Ineffective systems increase the level of pollution. There is an onus on the local authorities to ensure that the introduction of any traffic management system is preceded by an environmental impact study. Further, before we decide to ban this or promote that, a proper impact study must be done if we are to really reduce our emissions.