Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As I raised with other speakers earlier, we do need to shift away from those heavier vehicles. We are looking at it. Within the climate action plan, there is a commitment to look at sectoral reforms to taxation on an environmental basis. We will continue to do that with the Department of Finance. It is not just fixed as we are at this present time. One does this in the budgetary process and through the tax strategy group and so on. We will look at those other models and examples, including the French model. I would not rule that out. It is an area where we have already done a lot but perhaps we could go further.

If I heard her correctly, the Senator said that we should be doing congestion charges. My own view on this goes back to the discussion with Deputy Bruton earlier. I believe that one of our first priorities should be road space reallocation and in demand management to those mechanisms. Using that method, one has the ability to improve the public transport alternative. There are huge benefits to doing the modal shift that we need to make. If one just does it just as a punitive charge and does not make the other alternatives better, quicker, cheaper or easier, then I believe that is not fair.