Irish have second-highest car dependency in the EU

Research found that 76% of Irish people use a car as their main transport mode on a typical day — up 8 percentage points since a similar poll was conducted in 2019.

Irish people have the second highest level of car dependency among EU citizens, according to the result of a new EU-wide survey.

Research carried out on behalf of the European Commission found that 76% of Irish people use a car as their main transport mode on a typical day — up 8 percentage points since a similar poll was conducted in 2019.

Only Cypriots (85%) had a higher level of dependency. The EU average was just 47%.

The survey showed Ireland was one of only five EU member states where car dependency levels have increased in the past three years.

Public transport

It also found 46% of Irish respondents said the availability of public transport in their own area was bad, while 35% criticised the affordability of public transport services.

The Eurobarometer poll, which surveyed almost 26,400 adults across the 27 EU member states during the summer, including over 1,000 in Ireland, was designed to assess the attitudes and expectations of EU citizens around the green transition and the impact of tackling climate change on their lives.

The EU has set out a strategy — the European Green Deal — which seeks to make Europe become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

As part of new legislation which came into force last year, EU member states were set binding targets to lower their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% on 1990 levels by 2030.

Climate fear

The survey showed Irish people are less afraid about climate change than most other Europeans but are more fearful about the current cost of their energy bills.

The results highlighted how 54% of Irish respondents admitted that climate change was something that frightened them — the fifth lowest rate among the 27 EU member states where the average was 70% — while 8 out of 10 Irish people felt they could personally do more to tackle climate change.

Only one in five believed that Ireland does not need to take action to fight climate change if other countries take no action either.

Energy prices

It also revealed that 98% of Irish respondents claimed the level of energy prices in Ireland was a serious problem — the 3rd highest rate in the EU.

According to the poll, 70% of Irish people said the current cost of their household energy needs was a very serious problem compared to the EU average of 44%.

Similar figures were reported for the attitude of Irish consumers to current fuel prices for transport.

However, more than two-thirds (68%) said they were confident that they personally could use less energy than their current levels — also the third highest rate in the EU where the average figure was 53%.

On an optimistic note, 50% of Irish people expressed confidence that their fellow nationals would control their energy use in order to limit climate change — the second highest level in the EU where the average was 37%.

However, almost two-thirds (63%) of Irish respondents said they would be unwilling to pay higher energy charges to speed up the green transition.

At the same time, 39% said they had taken some measures in the past five years to make their home more energy efficient, although 51% admitted the energy efficiency of their home could be improved.

Only 10% said they had availed of public monies in the past five years to help make their home more energy efficient.

Less than half of Irish people also believe the Irish government and local authorities as well as private companies are doing enough to ensure that the green transition is fair.

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Almost two-thirds of Irish people said they believed policies to fight climate change will create more new jobs than they will remove.

The European Commission said the new geopolitical situation as a result of the war in Ukraine combined with high energy prices and the higher cost of living had strengthened the importance of a rapid green transition.

“Our policies need to ensure that nobody and no place is left behind and that the benefits and costs of this transformation are shared fairly across society,” it added.