Oops! Has the previous government's plans to get us all to buy green cars backfired in a monumental way?
When road tax and VRT charges became linked to CO2 emissions in 2008 the country jumped, en masse, into diesel powered cars, reversing a trend that had seen petrol as the preferred choice of the Irish car buyer. Well it seems that, not only did that decision cost the Government a lot of money in lost revenue, but it might actually be killing us.
According to An Taisce, poor air quality contributes to 3,400 premature deaths in Ireland annually - with pollution from diesel cars, buses and trucks largely to blame.
The heritage body says polluted air costs the country up to €6.3bn a year due to days lost in work and education, as well as the direct health costs.
An Taisce Policy Director James Nix has written to both the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan and Minister for Health James Reilly urging them to work to reform EU law on air pollution. Nix says that the focus needs to be put on reducing pollution from diesel cars, buses and trucks.
Does that mean we can all have V8s - seeing as how this Global Warming thing is not working out anyway?