Congestion charges focus of White Paper

The Government plans to introduce congestion charging, road pricing, car sharing schemes and workplace travel plans, as part of its Sustainable Transport Action Plan.

Proposals for the action plan, to be published before the end of the year, were contained in the White Paper on Energy unveiled by the Taoiseach this week.

Its aims are to reduce demand for car-based commuting, reduce transport CO2 emissions, encourage the use of biofuels and reduce the State's dependency on imported fuels.

According to the White Paper, the Action Plan will address areas such as better integration of transport infrastructure and land use planning; measures to reduce transport demand, including road pricing or congestion charges; achieving greater energy efficiency from the transport sector. It is also intended to influence behavioural change, including car-sharing schemes and workplace travel plans.

The White Paper also covers issues such as eco-driving, and support for EU-level agreements with motor manufacturers' associations to reduce CO2 emissions of new passenger cars to an average level of 130g/km by 2012. The paper covers the mandatory provision of consumer information on fuel economy. It also covers changes to both vehicle registration tax (VRT) and motor tax, such as consideration of the extension, beyond December 2007, of the preferential VRT treatment, currently available to a series of hybrid electric, flexi-fuel and electric vehicles.

The wide-ranging White Paper supports a national biofuels obligation on fuel suppliers of 5 per cent by 2009, and the use of 100 per cent pure plant oil (PPO) in captive fleets maintained by local authorities and public bodies. However an immediate "get out clause", at least in relation to the introduction of congestion charging and road pricing, was pointed out by officials from the Department of Transport who said these aspects of the plan would come into effect only when there was "sufficient" public transport in place, as part of Transport 21.

Asked for clarification, a spokeswoman for the Minister for Transport Mr Cullen said this meant no congestion charges would be imposed until the seven proposed Luas lines were in place alongside the proposed two metros in Dublin.

According to the Transport 21 timetable, this would mean there would, in fact, be no congestion charging or road pricing until after 2015, although there is no reason why other elements of the plan cannot go ahead sooner.

While the Government recognised that transport played a pivotal role in supporting economic growth and balanced regional development, it said it was imperative that growth in energy consumption in the transport sector is decoupled from economic growth.

Those views were echoed by EU Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs, who said transport represents Ireland's greatest challenge in terms of meeting its future energy needs. Mr Piebalgs, in Dublin for the launch of the White Paper told The Irish Times that more needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions created by the State's vehicle fleet, and to secure the supply of fuel into the future.

Mr Piebalgs said Ireland could not wait for EU carmakers to deliver more eco friendly cars and he believed transport needed "to be reorganised". In a three-point plan for transport he said logistics needed to be looked at to ensure that the most efficient use was made of distribution; that there would have to be a greater shift to public transport in cities, and that fuels for transport would have to come, in much greater capacity, from renewable energy.

He instanced the traffic congestion in Dublin and said the Republic could make more use of biomass and biofuel to keep down C02 emissions, and also to ensure security of supply.

Ireland is one of the most exposed EU states to a global price rise in fossil fuels, importing more than 90 per cent of our energy.