Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 178: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the strategies he intends to put in place to ensure that air quality levels continue to comply with the air quality standards in future years, particularly in city and urban areas where, according to the recent air quality report from the Environmental Protection Agency, the areas most at risk to deteriorating air quality are due to traffic-related pollutants. [5308/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Air Quality Standards Regulations 2002 introduced requirements for development of air quality management plans by local authorities, in co-operation with the Environmental Protection Agency. Where the indicative level for any pollutant is exceeded, the 2002 regulations require the local authority concerned, following notification by the agency, to develop a long-term air quality management plan to ensure compliance with the thresholds for the relevant pollutant or pollutants, including those arising from traffic. Where there is a future risk of a pollutant threshold being exceeded and the agency considers measures are likely to be needed in the short term, the agency is expected to notify the relevant local authority to prepare a short-term air pollution action plan to reduce the risk. Under the EU auto oil programme, a series of directives has been implemented which provide for progressively cleaner road fuels, including the introduction of sulphur-free fuels.

The fourth air quality "daughter" directive, which must be transposed by February 2007, addresses arsenic, cadmium, nickel and polycyclic aromatics hydrocarbons, PAHs, in ambient air. PAHs arise, inter alia, from traffic emissions. Regulations are in place since 2001 requiring the mandatory provision of consumer information on fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions from all new passenger cars. This measure allows consumers to make informed choices in vehicle purchasing on both environmental and fuel efficiency grounds.

In September 2005, the European Commission published the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution, one of seven thematic strategies promised in the sixth environmental action programme. The strategy represents the next generation environment policy on air quality which takes a medium perspective to 2020 and aims to cut the annual number of premature deaths from air pollution related diseases by almost 40% by 2020, from the 2000 level, while also substantially reducing the area of forests and other ecosystems suffering damage from airborne pollutants.

The strategic objectives of the thematic strategy will be attained by simplifying current air quality legislation and, where appropriate, revising and-or proposing new legislation, including reducing emissions from light and heavy duty vehicles, EURO 5 and 6 standards, shipping, agriculture and small combustion plants.

The proposal for a directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe was published in conjunction with the thematic strategy. The directive aims to simplify and streamline current air quality legislation by consolidating the 1996 air quality framework directive and the first three "daughter" directives into a into a single directive; the "daughter" directives address sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, PM10, lead, benzene, carbon monoxide and ozone in ambient air. The proposed directive includes requirements to address fine particulates, PM 2.5.

Measures in regard to the transport sector are generally the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Transport. These measures are broadly covered by vehicle standards, fuel efficiency, modal shift, Luas, DART, QBCs, cycle lanes, etc., and demand management, large infrastructural projects such as the M50 upgrade, the Dublin Port tunnel, various town bypasses and general measures to help relieve traffic congestion, etc.