Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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281. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of vehicles that were destroyed in Ireland in each of the years 2018 to 2021 and to date in 2022; the breakdown by the year of registration of the vehicles, by engine type, by engine size, manufacture and the reason for the destruction of the vehicles; his views on whether the destruction of many roadworthy vehicles represents poor climate sense given the overall carbon footprint of having to manufacture replacement vehicles; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37630/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Every year, millions of vehicles in Europe reach the end of their life. If end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are not managed properly, they can be a threat to the environment as well as a lost resource of millions of tonnes of materials. Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles aims to minimise the impact of ELVs on the environment and to improve the environmental performance of all the economic operators involved in the life cycle of vehicles. The Directive contains provisions on the collection, treatment, recovery and recycling of ELVs. The production of vehicles has undergone important changes since the adoption of the Directive 20 years ago and it is currently under review by the European Commission with the aim of promoting changes in the design of products and promoting high quality recycling and facilitating the uptake of recycled materials in new products.

The evaluation of the ELV Directive concluded that it largely delivered on its initial objectives and Ireland recently submitted our ELV data to Eurostat which confirmed Ireland achieved the ELV reuse and recycling rate of 90.33% and a reuse and recovery rate of 97.12% in 2020, in compliance with current EU targets. This is the third year that Ireland achieved full compliance with the ELV Directive targets which were fully met for the first time in 2018. Ireland will continue to improve the reuse, recycling and recovery of valuable material from ELVs as part of our transition to a circular economy.

The statistical data requested by the Deputy is contained in my Department's National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF). As the request is very detailed in nature, I have arranged for my officials to send these details directly to the Deputy.