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Transport

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6.1 Ireland: Vehicles under current licence 1985-2015

  • The number of licensed vehicles in Ireland increased by 181%, from 915,000 to 2.6 million, between 1985 and 2015.
  • Private cars accounted for the majority of this growth with an increase of almost 1.3 million vehicles between 1985 and 2015.
  • The number of goods vehicles licensed has grown more than threefold from 93,000 in 1985 to 331,000 in 2015.
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passenger cars per 1,000 population
Romania247
Hungary315
Latvia331
Croatia349
Slovakia360
Denmark412
Lithuania413
Portugal415
Bulgaria418
Ireland436
Czech Republic459
United Kingdom461
Sweden470
Greece471
Netherlands472
Spain474
France489
Belgium493
Estonia497
Slovenia518
Poland526
Germany 540
Austria547
Cyprus565
Finland581
Italy610
Malta619
Luxembourg645

 

  • Ireland had 436 passenger cars per 1,000 population in 2014. This was the 10th lowest in the EU. Luxembourg had the highest ratio at 645 and Romania the lowest at 247.
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6.3 Ireland: New private cars licensed by emission class 2005-2015

Bands A and BBands C and DBands E, F and GUnclassified
200520.69980.82862.2392.504
200624.98382.3763.5632.357
200731.82785.92761.0061.994
200844.41264.2236.4041.434
200930.9617.7324.9190.821
201068.20513.8892.540.273
201178.5346.61.5760.222
201270.1154.4541.6220.065
201366.7053.2981.3080.037
201487.4073.5581.3660.03
2015115.4694.3741.2280.039
  • On July 1st 2008, the basis of motor taxation charges changed from engine size to the emission rating of the vehicle.
  • The proportion of new private cars registered in emission bands A and B increased from 12% in 2005 to 95% in 2015, while the proportion in emission bands E, F and G fell from 37% to 1% over this period.
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6.4 Ireland: Road freight tranpsort 1995-2014

  • Road Freight transport in Ireland peaked in 2007, when there were just under 300 million tonnes carried, over 18.7 billion tonne-kilometres and 2.3 billion vehicle kilometres travelled. Activity levels fell significantly in the next five years before increasing again in 2014. In 2014 there were 112.5 million tonnes carried, 9.8 billion tonne-kilometres travelled and 1.3 billion vehicle kilometres travelled.
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6.5 EU: Road freight transport 2014

  • Relative to 2006 Ireland had the second lowest tonne-kilometres and lowest vehicle-kilometres travelled of EU member states for which data were available in 2014. Tonne-kilometres in Ireland in 2014 were at 56% of the level in 2006 and vehicle kilometres were 52% of the 2006 level.
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6.6 Ireland: Rail and bus passenger public traffic 2000-2014

  • Rail usage increased in Ireland between 2000 and 2007, growing from almost 1.4 billion  passenger-kilometres to just over 2 billion passenger-kilometres. Rail usage then fell to 1.6 billion passenger-kilometres in 2013, before rising again in 2014 to 1.7 billion.
  • Bus and coach travel in Ireland increased by 36% in the period 2000 to 2009, from 256 million passsenger kilometres travelled in 2000 to 349 million in 2009. Bus and coach travel then fell between 2009 to 2012 before rising again in 2013 and 2014.
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passenger kilometres per capita
Austria1408.38795475056
France1359.43210889054
Sweden1256.73104358962
Denmark1211.24837445448
Germany1126.41893927014
United Kingdom1005.59189652462
Netherlands970.035038319206
Belgium952.249876651108
Italy821.895478493968
Hungary780.572551485138
Czech Republic727.139966548137
Finland710.660084714204
Luxembourg665.841944404017
Spain540.632361845545
Slovakia476.924727319257
Poland417.829979681127
Ireland375.203479491156
Portugal369.414865841122
Latvia321.763825352191
Slovenia300.812436168329
Romania249.206522122205
Bulgaria234.346631791619
Croatia215.926828826067
Estonia212.795224875154
Greece98.1073427946517
Lithuania91.7284078122707
  • Rail passengers in Ireland travelled on average 375 kilometres per capita in 2014. Austria at 1,408 had the highest kilometres per capita travelled in the EU in 2014.
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6.8 Ireland: International passengers through Irish air and sea ports 2006-2014

  • International air passengers travelling through airports in Ireland reached 31.3 million in 2007. Passenger numbers then decreased by 25% between 2008-2011 before rising in 2012-2014.
  • International passengers travelling to and from sea ports in Ireland reached 3.1 million in 2010.  Passenger numbers were lower in subsequent years with 2.8 million travelling to and from Irish seaports in 2014.
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passengers per capita
Slovakia0.306687526045759
Romania0.525678122730427
Slovenia0.634398872438546
Poland0.637043051559772
Hungary0.91671098516659
Bulgaria1.01724269519605
Czech Republic1.14937912957998
Lithuania1.29908930677785
Croatia1.32741053341462
EU1.42720237335844
Italy1.51423576865695
Estonia1.52237959780183
France1.65072266528625
Germany 2.03401071295257
Latvia2.40957287351084
Belgium2.59331700700964
Sweden2.64132215861209
Finland2.68798977119093
Portugal2.82583287851765
Spain2.93510328333434
Greece3.00635666027596
Austria3.05042865846727
United Kingdom3.08201840355468
Netherlands3.63398138804319
Luxembourg4.42685926357153
Denmark4.84689390082341
Ireland5.70597965346224
Cyprus8.65786013986014
Malta10.0770644876159
  • In 2014, Ireland had 5.7 international air passengers per capita compared with the EU average of 1.4 passengers per capita. The EU countries with the highest number of passengers per capita were Cyprus and Malta (two other small islands) with respectively 8.7 and 10.1 international air passengers per capita.
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6.10 Ireland: Means of travel to work 1986-2011

  • Between 1986 and 2011, the proportion of females aged 15 years or over driving to work has increased from 27% to 66%. The proportion of females travelling to work as car passengers fell from 16% to 5% in the same period.
  • The proportion of males aged 15 years or older driving to work increased from 42% to 55% between 1986 and 2011.
  • There were 12% of women aged 15 years or over who walked to work in 2011 compared with 8% of working men aged 15 years or older. Just under 14% of men aged 15 years or over travelled to work by Other means in 2011 compared with 0% of women.

 

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