Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some 1.5 million Irish homes are to be retrofitted with the support of the State through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. This programme was costed by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, at €8 billion. The SEAI is costing it at €35 billion over 35 years, as per its website, under deep retrofit. A house will burn in one year what a truck will burn in one week. I ask the Minister of State to do the obvious thing and cut emissions. There are 5 million km to be covered daily by trucks in order to keep Ireland moving. How much could be achieved if the national fleet was upgraded to Euro 6 engines? Why is 45% of our national fleet over ten years old? There is a lack of investment or incentives for hauliers to upgrade their trucks. The value of older trucks, such as Euro 2, Euro 3, Euro 4 or Euro 5 vehicles, went down in the UK and we bought them. A fleet of Euro 6 engine trucks would reduce emissions at a cost of only €108 million and the Government is spending €8 billion on houses, when fuel for a house for a year is fuel for a week for a truck.

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