Professor Brian Caulfield:

I thank the Deputy for the question. I agree with him. He is right on the premise that people think they have a choice because when one goes to purchase a car, it is very difficult to get something that is not termed an SUV. We need a great deal more guidance from national government on what we define as an SUV. Anytime I talk or am in a debate about it, the first thing I am asked is to define an SUV and the argument then descends quite a bit. There are ways and Paris has looked at ways to reduce the number of SUVs which come into that city. There are ways in which we can incentivise and perhaps tax those out.

As the Deputy said, it is the original equipment manufacturers, OEMs, which are choosing these cars for us. If one listens to, for example, Geraldine Herbert from the Irish Independent, she would say that we need to go back to the manufacturers. We need then to go back to Europe to push for changes in the size of these vehicles. We will also see, as these vehicles are getting bigger and having more battery power, that they will also become heavier which will impact our air quality as it produces particular matter which will cause issues in our cities around general health. Europe needs to start looking at that but guidance can be given from national government in the taxing of these vehicles and then, perhaps, by taking non-fiscal approaches where one says that after a certain date, vehicles of a particular weight or size, or whatever it is, are not allowed access into our city centres, particularly where vulnerable people live and who are exposed to these higher levels air quality contaminants.