Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 21 October 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Emissions Readings for Volkswagen Cars: Discussion

9:30 am

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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With respect, from my perspective, that is a wasted exercise. It should be as plain as day what happened and why it happened. Volkswagen had an engine that did not meet the standards and somebody within the organisation decided to manipulate test results through the electronic components. That has been established. How Volkswagen manages its business behind the scenes in terms of the reputational damage that has been done to Volkswagen is an issue for Volkswagen. Get on with it. Do not expect a clap on the back for initiating all that investigation to improve the shareholder value.

There are a number of injured parties here. First, there are the people who went out and spent their money on a Volkswagen car, who believed in the brand and are now at a significant loss. The resale value of the cars is questionable. Another injured party is the environment, which affects all of us, whether we are Volkswagen owners, Audi owners, or owners of any other car. We have all been affected by Volkswagen's wilful neglect of standards, which has an impact on the environment. Let us get real here. Those are the injured parties. This is not personal, but on behalf of his organisation, Mr. Himmer should start to figure out how Volkswagen will resolve that issue, as opposed to how it will regain the trust of consumers so that they will continue to buy its brand and continue to look after the people who work in Volkswagen. That is not where Mr. Himmer should start from.

There is a further point. Mr. Himmer said in the course of his comments that he discovered, as the rest of us did, on 19 September 2015 that there was an issue with US emissions. He went on to say that on 22 September 2015 it became clear that there were issues in Europe, yet he did not suspend sales of the vehicle until 14 October 2015. There is another injured party. Those cars were not taken out of circulation. Mr. Himmer should have contacted those who bought vehicles between the date he became aware of the problem and the date on which he suspended sales to offer them their money back and let them decide what they wanted to do.

Mr. Himmer will not answer the question, but I will ask it again. Has any thought been put into how Volkswagen intends to address the very significant damage that has been done to the stakeholders, namely, the affected owners and the State, on behalf of its citizens, because of the impact on the environment? I get the impression that no thought has been put into it. It is easy for Volkswagen to say it is sorry and that it regrets what has happened. That is all good, but it is PR spin. It is straight from a PR textbook - when one is caught, one should put one's hands up and try to mitigate the damage rather than truthfully addressing the core of the problem. I do not get the impression from anything I have heard from Mr. Himmer or his counterparts in the United States and the UK that, as a corporate body, Volkswagen has any interest in addressing the core of this issue. It is a "cover thy butt" exercise that is going on. I do not think it is acceptable. It is a wasted exercise to have the witnesses come in.

Has Mr. Nolan sought any kind of guarantee or binding statement from suppliers or other manufacturers? Has he received documentation to say that they have carried out a full review of all their procedures and processes to ensure that nothing like this is happening with any other make of car?