Seanad debates
Tuesday, 23 April 2024
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Air Quality
1:00 pm
Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State. My question today relates to the Government's clean air strategy. As the Government has told us, air pollution is the silent killer in our environment and our society. We know where air quality is poor that those with an underlying condition are at greater risk of stroke, lung disease, lung cancer, asthma and dementia and that those conditions are exacerbated. We also see a growing body of research that suggests that poor air quality has an impact on cognitive and mental health. While we may not be able to see or feel poor air quality, it has a very real impact on our communities, particularly those in which I am based which are very close to the city centre. These communities are effectively highways to the city centre carrying commuter traffic day in, day out. The Department of Transport acknowledges there are between 1,300 and 1,400 premature deaths in Ireland each year because of poor air quality and air pollution in our towns and cities.
My question today relates to the Government proposals to address poor air quality and our concerns about the growing deterioration in air quality that we are seeing in parts of Dublin and right across the country. There is a laid-back attitude on the part of the Government with regards to air quality. We have the clean air strategy, which was published in April last year, setting out 2040 as its deadline for committing itself to meeting the WHO air quality guidelines. There is an inconsistency here because there will be an updated set of EU guidelines by 2030. On top of that, we have a transport plan for BusConnects, which by and large I very much support because of the emphasis on greater bus and bicycle use, but there are very significant issues in certain areas such as in Phibsborough and in Drumcondra as well where we are seeing car and bus use prioritised over cycle and active travel. The NTA estimates by 2028, when the BusConnects plans for the Phibsborough area come into effect, the annual mean concentration of nitrogen dioxide will remain above existing EU guidelines. That is even before we consider the much more stringent guidelines of the WHO or the ones that are going to come in in 2030.
My appeal to the Minister is to get a clear sense as to what the Government's plan is. A number of weeks ago, a draft strategy was announced regarding transport for Dublin and a conversation was had about ultra-low emissions zones. I have concerns about those proposals and about how those who need to drive to work will get around, particularly our tradesmen and those who simply cannot get to their place of work, or indeed of education, without the use of a car. However, the reality is we have to do something and we have to do it fast. The current air pollution levels are simply not acceptable in our towns and cities. Again, to go back to the Phibsborough example, in 2021 air quality levels there exceeded the national and EU guidelines. They were four times higher than the WHO guidelines for safe levels of nitrogen dioxide in our environment and yet we are seeing a piecemeal and pedestrian approach by Dublin City Council and by the Government.There has been a commitment to diffusion testing throughout 2024 into next year, but we are not clear as to what will be done with that testing. We need to hear clear answers from the Government as to their plans to clean up air quality in our cities.
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Transport, and for Climate, Energy and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, sends his apologies. Clean air is fundamental to our well-being and quality of life and is essential for the health of the environment on which we depend, hence the high priority given to improving Ireland’s air quality in the current programme for Government. Ambient air quality standards for Ireland are currently established through EU legislation which provides for a minimum level of health protection. New WHO air quality guideline levels published in 2021 provide greater ambition in terms of reductions to decrease health impacts. While they firmly highlight that there is no safe level of air pollution they are not legally binding. Ireland's ambition with regard to air quality was set out in the national Clean Air Strategy, which commits us to achieving the new WHO guideline levels by 2040. This will be challenging and will require significant legislative, policy and behavioural change. Determining the most appropriate policy measures required to bring about these changes will take time and we need to make sure that the measures introduced do not create unintended consequences. Through the implementation of the Clean Air Strategy this Government will ensure continuous reductions in air pollution levels.
Monitoring and modelling of air pollution carried out by the EPA is essential to help us better understand where issues are arising so that we may ensure national measures are in place to deliver air pollution reductions and look to target policy measures to those areas with specific issues. Over the past number of years significant progress has been made in relation to air quality including the delivery of the Clean Air Strategy, the new solid fuel regulations and transport-related policy measures which are already starting to have a positive impact on our air quality. BusConnects is a transformative programme of investment in the bus system, providing better bus services across our cities. It is the largest investment in the bus system in the history of the State and is managed by the National Transport Authority. BusConnects Dublin will deliver 230 km of bus corridors and 200 km of cycling lanes providing safe, accessible, and efficient transport to many more people while reducing traffic congestion and noise and air pollution. No new diesel-only buses have been purchased for urban public service obligation bus fleets since July 2019, and the transition to a zero-emission urban bus fleet is currently programmed to take until 2035 based on replacement of non-zero-emission buses as they reach the end of their efficient service lives. The first order of 100 double-deck electric buses for the Dublin network was placed in 2022 and all were delivered by the end of last year. More than 30 of these buses are in service now using charging infrastructure at Phibsborough and Summerhill bus depots and all are scheduled to go into operation over the coming months.
On WHO air quality standards, the air quality at Doyle's Corner in Phibsborough is currently above the WHO guideline values, and the BusConnects programme will provide slight improvement to the air quality in this area through prioritisation of bus services along this route. The evaluation of the BusConnects project does not take all other transport-related policy measures into account and as such does not provide a substantial indication of future air quality levels along the routes. Overall, the Government remains committed to improving our air quality for the benefit of all and is taking a range of measures to do so.
Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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There are two fundamental points we are not seeing here. There is a degree of urgency we are not seeing here. There is a lot of talk about the plans the Government intends to put in place and the Minister of State said it is a priority for Government, but the Government has millions of priorities. What is it actually going to do? I do not see the urgency here. We still have a target of 2040 to meet what he describes as the non-binding WHO guidelines. We are hiding behind non-binding WHO guidelines when we know the current levels are having an impact. I will bring it back to the communities I am speaking about. These comprise people of all ages. These are their communities. They happen to live on a highway to the city centre, but they need to be respected as much as the people who need to commute from north County Dublin or beyond to get to the city centre. We have a situation where a cycle lane is being lifted throughout the main thoroughfare of Phibsborough to make way for cars and buses.I need to drive many a time. The key issue all that we are not prioritising, to the extent that we need to, those who wish to and should be using active travel across our communities. This is an appeal and plea to Government to ensure that there is a degree of urgency with regard to the projects that are currently being rolled out.
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank the Senator for raising this very important issue around air quality. I assure her of the Government's commitment to addressing the challenges facing Ireland in that context. The Government is committed to addressing this critical public health and environmental challenge through measures including the introduction of enhanced solid fuel regulations, increased support for local authority air quality enforcement and the implementation of Ireland's first clean air strategy. This further highlights the priority the Government has afforded to cleaning the air that we breathe to protect the health and well-being of the people we serve.
The clean air strategy describes how we will enhance and protect the quality of the air that we breathe and realise the full environmental and health benefits of cleaner air through a comprehensive cross-government programme of policies and measures that will tackle all sources of air pollution, including those in the transport, agriculture and residential sectors. The strategy also builds on the ambition of the national climate action plan, which includes a range of actions required to release the synergies between current air and climate policy. This includes the electrification of the road transport fleet, taking action in regard to ammonia, improving the energy efficiency of our homes and reducing our reliance on solid fuels. The provision of data from the EPA, including the annual inventory and projections, as well as our enhanced national ambient air quality monitoring programme, gives us a comprehensive evidence base to tackle the source of air pollution that needs to be addressed.
While Ireland now has a world-class ambient air quality monitoring network with real-time data available online, its effectiveness and potential can only be realised once the general public becomes more aware of and knowledgeable about how to access and interpret the data. The key measures projected to help reduce our overall annual emissions in transport are set out in greater detail in the national air pollution control programme, with taxation policy and an increase in the electrification of the national fleet delivering the most significant reductions. These will be complemented by increasingly stringent vehicle emissions standards, fuel standards and a move to more sustainable modes of transport, in particular in our towns and cities. Overall, the Government remains strongly committed to improving our air quality for the benefit of all and is taking a range of measures to do so.
Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Sherlock for raising this very important issue. We thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to take all the Commencement matters. We are appreciate the demands on his time and the House acknowledges that.