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Older vehicles should be banned to improve air quality, says Green MEP

Older vehicles should be banned to improve air quality, says Green MEP

A Green MEP says older vehicles should be banned to improve air quality in Ireland.

Ciarán Cuffe also wants to improve the monitoring of air pollution.

He met representatives today from the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss recent findings that Dublin's air quality breached EU limits for nitrogen dioxide.

High levels of nitrogen dioxide impacts on health, especially respiratory illness and asthma, with children and older people most vulnerable.

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Mr Cuffe said older cars are a big culprit of air pollution.

"We do need to take action to limit the older, dirtier vehicles," said the MEP.

"And they might be trucks, they might be buses, they might be diesel cars. They might even be petrol cars.

"I think if it's over 10 or 15 or 20 years old...I think we should be looking at clean air zones, particularly in the densely populates areas in the centre of our towns and city."

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