Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

There is general understanding and consensus that transport is the big offender in the creation of CO2 emissions. The level of carbon emissions in the transport sector has increased more than 200% since 1990 and projections show that the level will increase rather can decrease into the future. Major measures need to be taken and a massive shift from private car use to use of public transport is required. I would not hold my breath in terms of waiting for the Government to make that shift but it is clear that is what is needed.

Regrettably, under the Transport 21 agenda, the public transport projects have fallen behind and, in some cases, are subject to considerable delays, whereas the road projects, in some cases, are ahead of schedule. That shows there is still a mindset that favours the private car use over public transport use.

The idea of using the taxation system to favour low carbon emission cars makes sense and it has general support. The question I pose is whether the Minister has thought this out properly and in a way that will achieve the desired result. That result must be twofold. It must deal with the issue of carbon emissions but, equally important, it must be fair. That is something that has not been taken on board in the argument about climate change to the extent that is required. There is also the question of efficiency. Any scheme comprising seven bands is fraught with the potential to be overly bureaucratic. A seven-band scheme is in place in this regard and that shows a certain muddled thinking in terms of how to make the changes to meet the required objective.

Surprisingly, anomalies have been generated by the scheme unnecessarily, to which I will refer shortly. This scheme was not initiated by the new Government. Many people are of the view that the Green Party in government is responsible for it, but to be fair to the Tánaiste, Deputy Cowen, he outlined in the previous budget in some detail his intention to engage in consultation on changing VRT to meet environmental requirements. He said that the reasons for making such a move include the environmental aspects, the impact on the Exchequer, equity, administrative taxation and economic efficiency aspects. These were all aspects that were required to be taken into account when making the move. He also made an interesting point that many of us have forgotten. In his previous budget speech he maintained that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government would also consult on the matter and there would be a complementary rebalancing of annual motor tax. He said this would provide a further incentive through the motor tax system for the motoring public to drive cleaner cars. He said this would apply to vehicles registered on or after 1 January 2008. The Greens are in government and such a scheme has been introduced, but it will not come into effect until 1 July 2008.

Some people took the Minister, Deputy Cowen, at his word and ordered cars with low emissions on 1 January 2008, but they feel damned sore about this matter. I am sure other Deputies have received e-mails from people who took the Minister at his word and bought a low emissions car, but now find that for the lifetime of their use of that car, they will be penalised.

One person who e-mailed me on the matter wrote:

As an early adopter of the green message . . . I ordered a diesel vehicle . . . with the full intention and knowledge that I was doing my piece for the environment. My new car's CO2 rating is certified at 128g, which would mean under the new regime a VRT reduction from 30% to 16%, and an annual motor tax reduction from approx 560 to 90 euro.

This unfortunate man has now discovered to his cost that is not the case. He has been caught even though he did the right thing and was guided by the indicators in the Government policy on changes in this area. He went on to make the point that:

Further compounding the injustice of the Minister's action in not amending the system, is the fact that imported second hand cars, with the relevant CO2 clearance, are to be taxed after July 1st on emissions and not engine capacity. This means that a car bought in the UK on the same date as my diesel car . . . can be imported into the state [and will be subject to the new regime for its lifetime].

He made the further point that ". . . it also opens up the possibility that a car purchased on the same date in Ireland prior to July the 1st 2008, could be exported out of the state and then re-imported after July 1st . . . at the lower taxation rate!" These are the types of anomalies that have been brought to our attention. They indicate a certain lack of coherence and consistency in terms of the policy, even though the policy is sound.

It is a small measure if one reflects on the totality of what needs to be done. The biggest single political challenge we face is climate change. An interesting presentation on bio-fuels was made at the Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security today. Concern has been expressed about the efficiency of bio-fuels, the bio-fuels that should be developed and their energy usage. Rapeseed, which was considered to be the way to proceed in terms of the development of bio-fuels, has a very low energy yield and many difficulties are attached to its production, which make it inefficient in terms of its usage.

The most common crop we grow, by far, is grass. Interestingly, it was clear from today's presentation that we could, if we chose to do so, convert grass to gas to service fleets of buses, transport and even trains. That is an interesting idea given that another natural resource, wind energy, is readily available in view of our climate and is also appropriate to meeting needs. Efforts have been made by the Department responsible to encourage the development of wind energy to generate electricity, but no efforts have been made by the Minister for Transport or his Department to encourage research and development into bio-fuels to meet the need to reduce carbon emissions in the transport sector.

I did not know that there was such a thing as belly grass. It is grass that is extracted from the carcasses of cows and pigs in the slaughter house. This grass is perfect for conversion to gas, which can be used as a fuel in transport. This is the type of development that is required. Such development has happened in other countries, which such fuel is being used in an economic fashion, but such development is not taking place here.

I have great concerns that the Minister for Transport who appeared before the committee to which I referred relatively recently gave a presentation which did not show the understanding, concern, commitment, focus and information one would require from a Minister dealing with the sector that creates the biggest problem in terms of the level of carbon emissions. A sea change by the Government is needed in this area. I criticised the Taoiseach this morning for not showing leadership in this regard. If he spoke out on the issue on climate change, it would help to generate a sea change in terms of what needs to be done in different sectors.

I am happy to support the Green Party in its efforts. It is making a genuine effort in its fields of environment and energy. I would criticise it if it were not doing that well enough, but I agree with its fundamentals. The big change has to occur in other sectors such as agriculture and transport, however. If it does not happen in those sectors we will have no chance of meeting not just the Kyoto targets — which we have overshot completely — but the 3% reduction per annum target set by the Government. Everybody in Government will look pretty foolish at the end of five short years if they have not made a real dent in terms of moving the tank around. A 3% reduction is a big challenge, but it is in line with the directive, in effect, coming from the EU as regards what this country has to do. We cannot rely simply on shelling out money for carbon credits. That is not feasible into the future.

This particular measure in terms of vehicle taxation and VRT is a good one, within the bigger picture. I wish it had been a great measure and that the Minister had sorted out the anomalies——

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