Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

I think the full package was looked at and there was a loss of €1 billion in revenue. Some readjustments have been made to the tax rates since 2008. Clearly, it is not easy to find the right spot where one can achieve revenue goals while simultaneously achieve environmental goals. We probably went a little too far in incentivising CO2 emissions as it lost us some revenue and increased the diesel fleet. We might always have a larger diesel fleet in Ireland because a diesel vehicle is more suited to travelling longer distances. On average, our cars travel somewhat longer distances than other vehicles in other countries. Diesel is worthwhile because the purchase price is typically a little bit higher than an equivalent petrol vehicle. A diesel vehicle is only worthwhile once one travels a certain mileage and with higher miles one will always have a little more diesel. In addition, the tax change makes diesel vehicles more favourable. Therefore, one ends up with a larger diesel stock than one would have otherwise. I believe I have answered the first and third questions.

The Chairman asked if we will always need diesel. We still lack vehicles that suit every driver and every type of journey. Hybrid vehicles have been mentioned. Practical tests are more important than laboratory-based tests. In practical driving tests one does not tend to get much more than 40 km on a purely electronic charge in hybrid vehicles. That distance is adequate in an urban setting but not if one wants to travel from Dublin to Cork where one must switch the petrol engine on and, therefore, at that point one has a less efficient engine, from a CO2, than a diesel vehicle. We will probably end up with diesel being a more significant aspect of our vehicle stock than other countries where the average mileage is lower and hybrid vehicles are more likely to meet the demand of a larger section of the population. It will be a little bit different for Ireland and, again, land use patterns, etc. drive demand.