Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

This is a very important debate. The comments of the speakers on the Government benches, including the remarks of the Minister, referred to climate change and how it will affect the future of society. Although the Bill is under the auspices of the Government and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government we must re-examine the way Departments are organised. There should be more joined-up thinking between the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Department of Transport. Perhaps there should be a new Department of the environment, transport and climate change. We should bring all of these policies together. I recognise that the energy sector is a part of the equation as well.

As Deputy Brady remarked, the future of the world is, effectively, the future of our climate. The manner in which people live in future critically depends on the level of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world and especially in Ireland. In Ireland, we are paying a very high price in human, environmental and economic terms for the ineffective and failed Government policies on transport, emissions and climate change. As a result, hundreds of thousand of Irish families now have a much poorer quality of life and must endure a longer commute to work, which adversely affects every facet of family life. The national economy is also affected. We have become less competitive because people cannot work as effectively or as quickly as previously and the working day is very long.

Some ten or 12 years ago when I first became a Member of the Oireachtas I could travel from Drogheda to the House in one hour, keeping within the speed limits and leaving at 8 a.m. Now one must rise at 6 a.m. to arrive here for 7.30 a.m. The queues along the M1 are becoming longer earlier, and the traffic is slower. The average person travelling from the north of the country to Dublin airport may find delays of up to 20 minutes in queues as they approach the airport from the northern side. The road transport network is not working effectively or efficiently because too many people are travelling by car. Mums and dads cannot spend quality time with their children because by the time they get home from work in the evening their children are long asleep in bed. Our quality of life is very poor as a result of the way in which we live.

I refer specifically to transport-related greenhouse gas emissions, which is dealt with in this Bill by taxing cars that emit higher levels of CO2. What is the Fianna Fáil record on that, and indeed that of the Green Party? Since 1990 our transport-related greenhouse gas emissions have gone up by 178%, an absolutely staggering figure. Of these emissions, 97% come from private cars and goods vehicles as a result of the trend towards buying larger vehicles. I have been reading some research in the UK and the USA that shows that commuter traffic with single-occupancy vehicles does the most damage in this regard. Unfortunately, the wealthier society becomes, the bigger the cars we want to drive. One indication of that is the number of SUVs driving on urban motorways, cars which are eminently unsuitable for the transport needs and infrastructure of urban areas. I welcome the fact the Minister is rebalancing the tax provisions for SUVs, so that people who drive vehicles that are totally unnecessary for modern transport needs, particularly in an urban environment, pay the price. Maybe they should be paying an even higher price. I am talking about vehicles with inefficient engines, which pollute the most.

The number of people who use cars driving to work has increased by more than 80%. In 1996, there were 600,000 people driving to work; there are more than 1 million today. Another problem is that the number of primary school children who are being driven to school has increased by more than 47% in the same period. The sad fact is that a report last week showed that the number of commuters using public transport, specifically buses, to Dublin city centre has decreased over the past year and that 50% of commuters still choose to drive to work. The key to solving the problem of poor quality of life in the transport arena and in modern cities is to get people out of their cars, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions. We should use the taxation system, as is now becoming the policy, to encourage people to buy cars that emit less. Taxing people who drive inefficient cars is also an environmentally constructive policy.

What the Government is lacking in its policy, however, is encouragement for people to walk, cycle, use public transport and share cars much more than we currently do. We must fundamentally change how our cities and town centres are designed and built, and we must also insist that top priority be given to pedestrians and public transport. There is a tyranny in our urban town centres. I am not talking about the tyranny of the Fianna Fáil Government, despite the feelings of many people about the 17 extra taxes imposed in the recent budget. It was the gabelle, the salt tax, that brought about the French revolution, but I do not know which of the 17 will be the gabelle. I am talking about a different tyranny — the tyranny of the motor car in our urban areas. To deal with this, we need more joined up thinking in the transport, environment and planning sectors. We need to plan to get cars out of our cities and towns. I was in San Francisco some years ago. There is a much better public transport system there than here, but the key principle in terms of planning was that no new shop or business could get planning permission for parking spaces. No parking spaces were allowed. One had to give one's contribution to public transport. We need to consider this here and to plan our cities and towns so that pedestrians are at the centre of those areas.

The European Charter of Pedestrian Rights, which was adopted as long ago as 1988, states: "The pedestrian has the right to live in urban or village centres tailored to the needs of human beings and not to the needs of the motor car and to have amenities within walking or cycling distance." Our society has gone the other way. If we could, we would bring our cars right into the supermarket. We would never get out of them. We would even sleep in them in some cases.

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