Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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310. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of work of the urban transport air pollution group (details supplied); the work programme of the group; when the group will publish a report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32559/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Urban Transport Related Air Pollution (UTRAP) group was jointly convened by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (now Department of Environment, Climate and Communications) and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (now Department of Transport). It was established to:

- examine transport-related air pollution;

- raise stakeholder awareness of this pollution, its occurrence in urban contexts and its legislative framework;

- review and identify best-practice measures to reduce transport-related air pollution in Irish cities and towns; and

- develop an evidence-based national policy framework within which local authorities could address the projected NO₂exceedance in Dublin and any potential future exceedances.

The group includes representatives from government departments, environmental, health and transport agencies, local authorities, and additional key stakeholders.

Its work programme has included analysis and review of: the nature of Irish transport-related air pollution in general and in cities, public health impacts, the legislative framework, and the nature of the Irish vehicle fleet; available air-pollutant and transport-related pollutant data, on-going research, national and urban-specific air pollutant monitoring processes and models; vehicle emissions standards, tax measures introduced and on-going and projected fleet transition measures in the private and public vehicle fleets, including buses and rail infrastructure; and the profile of transport-related pollutants at critical infrastructure in Dublin on a lessons-learned basis, including major terminal rail stations and the M50, and consideration of the on-going Department of Transport Five Cities Traffic Demand Management Study.

Work is ongoing at present on drafting the Group’s report, which the Group expects to finalise and agree in the coming weeks before submitting it to me. I plan to publish the report when I have received and considered it.