Mr. Paul Jackman:

What we have heard tonight on this side of the table, and what many Deputies have acknowledged, is the essential nature of diesel and its role. As the Deputy said, what happened in the Dáil today, with diesel generation being allowed back in one of the old plants that were decommissioned, is a reality. There is no getting away from it. I will give the committee an example. An electric truck that weighs the same as its diesel equivalent will do 100 km before its batteries need recharging. For every extra 100 km you want from that truck, you have to put an extra tonne of batteries on board. That is the reality. A truck that will do 400 km will be three tonnes heavier. That is the scale of what is involved.

What needs to be put on record is that on page 370 of the report that has us all here tonight, a presumption is made that the misalignment of the excise on diesel and petrol is the reason our diesel car sales are so high. In 2012, however, nearly 80% of our car sales were diesel cars; in 2016, it was 70%; in 2017, it was 65%; and, in 2022, it was 22%. The logic on page 370 is, therefore, turned totally inside out because here we have a 75% reduction in diesel car sales as a percentage of the total, with no realignment of the excise. That argument is therefore out the window.

On the same page there is a statement that diesel emits more nitrous oxide than petrol. As Mr. Drennan said earlier, there is 87% in the N2O emissions from a diesel engine from Euro 1 to Euro 6, which is what we have now, so that is another nonsense. Elements of the premise of many of the arguments for the realignment of the excise are, therefore, totally incorrect. Private car sales being so low as a percentage of the total means that an increase in tax, on top of the 40 cent to 50 cent increase per litre coming because of carbon tax, will land only on the commercial sector, which is dependent on diesel, as we have all reiterated tonight and as many Deputies have agreed. That cannot be allowed happen because it will land on every citizen in this country. It will not steer us away from diesel. We have no alternative. That has to be the message here tonight.