Dr. Brian Caulfield:

I thank the Deputy for the question. He is correct about the shared model. Those are the statistics that we have about how often these vehicles spend idle. It is a waste of perhaps the second biggest asset that anybody owns. Research conducted in the USA shows that every shared vehicle in a city gets rid of 15 other vehicles. There is potential for them. In urban areas of Dublin and Cork, the distances that we travel are quite short and alternatives are available. The bang for our buck from emissions is much lower. I disagree with what Senator Dooley said about these shared vehicles being successful in rural areas. I know of an example in Skerries where there is a shared car used by people to get to and from hospital appointments. That is where the big savings are. The distances travelled outside our cities are quite significant. Research that we conducted in Dublin with one of the companies shows that it was depressing car purchases. People were not purchasing cars because they have this shared option. People moving to Ireland and working in places such as Google Docks were not going to buy a car because they had this shared option. When we looked at people in the suburbs, this encouraged them to give up their second car because this alternative was available to them. There are many benefits relating to congestion and traffic.