Mr. Lars Himmer:

The Deputy has asked several questions. I will try to take them in order.

As to whether they will meet standards, they must. I am certain they will also be rigorously inspected and that the affected vehicles will be obliged to meet those standards. Today, Volkswagen is presenting to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, which issues the type approval in Europe, our solution for the 2.0 litre engine and over the coming weeks, that authority will look carefully at it. It is important that it be both validated and approved before we then start to implement this solution in cars. Making this right should also then mean there should be no impact on CO2, for instance, and then on motor tax in Ireland.

A concern was expressed about job losses. From a group perspective, this, of course, has been communicated as a disaster for the Volkswagen group. There have been announcements that we must cut costs. We already needed to do that, and this has been intensified. We are reviewing carefully our investments but from an Irish perspective, I mentioned I have 140 dedicated fantastic colleagues in Dublin and approximately 2,500 colleagues working with the brands at dealerships throughout the country. From a local market perspective, we must review some of the investments we are doing here but as an importer, they are relatively limited in the motor industry. I envisage more rather than less work in the future, as 115,000 cars need to be remedied in the next year. That is a lot of work. It will be done by us as an importer co-ordinating it, communicating with customers and making it as efficient a management process as we can for everybody. It will be our colleagues in the dealer network who will do the work and that will involve more work over the coming year. It will be a lot of work that will entail talking with customers to the effect that their car is getting the right solution, is back on the road and is good. Consequently, from a local perspective, I foresee very limited risk and actually see the opposite in the short term. Ultimately, it will depend on Volkswagen fixing this and setting it straight.