Ms Deirdre Hanlon:

It is a policy of the Government that we should move away from a diesel-only fleet for urban areas and from purchasing a new diesel-only fleet for those areas. We will measure not only the carbon emissions but also the emissions of nitrous oxide, sulphur oxide emissions and the particulate matter. There are impacts on two fronts, and we want to try to get measures on both. One is the impact on climate, which largely comes from carbon, and the other is the impact on air quality. Air quality impacts are more acute in areas where there is congestion and places where there is a higher proximity to people and buildings. Technologies, which might not cause the same impact on air quality in rural areas, might have a larger impact on air quality in urban areas.