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THE HEAD OF Volkswagen Ireland has been up in front of the Oireachtas Transport Committee this afternoon.
Danish native Lars Himmer, who has only been in the job since January of this year, offered his “sincere apologies” for the emissions scandal that has knocked the motoring giant for six.
Volkswagen Ireland deals in Audi, Skoda, and Seat cars to name just three in addition to its own brand.
The company is responsible for almost 2,700 staff here, both directly and indirectly.
“We have let down our customers both abroad and in Ireland, and we’ve abused our long history and the trust placed in us,” Himmer said in his opening statement, a sort of prolonged act of contrition.
We are taking these matters very seriously. We’ve fallen short of the standards expected of us. We will fix this at our expense, and we will co-operate fully with both policy-makers and regulators in order to do so.
The German auto maker has been in crisis since revealing it fitted 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with a special software mode to cheat emissions tests.
The function meant its cars could breeze through pollution regulations, but in normal driving the vehicles would pump out much higher quantities of toxic and greenhouse gases.
Himmer claims that he first became aware of the trouble facing his company on 19 September, and on 22 September about the extent to which European cars were affected.
Volkswagen Ireland is taking responsibility for 110,000 domestic cars and imports. The rogue software affects cars registered between 2008 and 2015 bearing a specific EA 189 diesel engine.
“All owners affected have been contacted regarding the remedy for the issue,” Himmer said.
We have suspended sales of new cars with the problem engine. I’d like to point out that the successor to the problem engine the EA 188 is not affected.
Currently almost 116,000 vehicles have been clarified by the company as it sifts through what car owners are affected, while 40,000 problem cars have been identified via the dedicated website set up to tackle the crisis.
Himmer seemed slightly confused by Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley suggesting that he had no idea who the injured party was with regard to the scandal.
“I am not sure what the question means,” he said. “I am not a legal professional, and that is a legal question.”
We are doing everything in our power to correct the problem, and to start the process of regaining trust with our customers and with our staff.
We have spent 65 years building up an excellent reputation in this country, and we share everyone’s rightful concern over this issue.
Himmer told the committee that it was unclear at present how much the remedy employed by the company will cost them.
“All I can say is it will cause as little inconvenience as possible for our customers,” he said.
Asked whether or not the investigation was in any way close to identifying the culprit behind the software code affecting the cars he said he has “no insights as to who is responsible for the software issue”.
I’m hoping that we will find out very quickly. We need to know and the public does too.
We are working with all the relevant authorities in a co-operative way. But these investigations are only just beginning.
Volkswagen, which has lost one quarter of its market value since the scandal broke, has set aside €6.5 billion to deal with the immediate fallout from the revelations, but in the long term it faces many times that amount in fines from regulators alone.
If you suspect that your car may be affected by this issue you can check whether or not that is the case using your vehicle registration number at www.campaigncheck.ie
Additional reporting Peter Bodkin
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Given the location this building isn’t tall enough.
Here we go again with the crying…
Another cornflake box, what a joke.
Pretty much… It will likely be 100million wasted when they finally come to their sense and have to tear down and replace with a tower.
Ye know what would be better? A few apartments. There is nowhere to live in Dublin anymore, housing should be priority numero uno.
Meanwhile in Sandyford IRES are applying for permission for 3 fourteen story apartment blocks.
“The integration of the Reflector with the existing dock-front buildings will create dynamic new relationships between old and new within the waterfront context”
what a load of b*ll*cks.
I nearly broke my screen hitting the like button on that comment podge.
When I read that line in the article, a little bit of sick came up my throat.
So that’s what young lads are doing jumping into the water – building a dynamic new relationship with the waterfronts of Dublin.
In an article that extols the design of the building it is odd that you would mention the developer and the estate agent but not the architect
I agree, very strange that there’s no mention of BKD.
Most of the “articles” on the journal recently seem to be ads in disguise. See the article about KPMG hiring for another example.
Should actually be about 6 times taller, and have room for 6,000 employees. That’s what the market demand is like down there. Are we the only country in the world that has height restrictions for every individual plot of land in the capital.
No we have them in Copenhagen too, along with boxes in all materials and sizes.
I live in Copenhagen and I think it’s a good thing if done right and with a good taste in design
There is a monster of development currently be constructed directly behind that will tower above it.
http://www.thejournal.ie/capital-dock-development-plans-2027892-Apr2015/
I’d hardly call 23 floors a monster development. It’s big for Dublin but tiny by international standards!
I’d love to see a bit more imagination in the designs.
To me I think this is a beautifully designed building.
http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/first-images-100million-reflector-building-11857604
It’s all about glass box these days
It’s very well designed and will look fantastic when complete
DCC planners are the problem. they don’t allow for imagination. millions were spent to run a competition for the site behind this one and norman foster won. they then scrapped the plans in favour of ….a glass box.
Same across the river, Harry Crosbie asked for designs for the site of the watchtower…once NAMA got their hands on it , …scrapped in favour of …..a concrete box.
Just to be clear…that would Sinn Fein controlled DCC.
Will employ people with nowhere to live
Fred….FG, FF and Lab collectively have more seats and therefore more voting power on DCC.
Do you really think FG and FF are not working together?
A little too tall for Dublin. Quite a sizeable part of the sky will be blocked out, especially for small people.
5/6 stories only?? What a waste. They need to reflect on that.
Its grand..except it should be about 20 floors at a minimum…post Brexit Dublin is gonna need lots of office space…docklands does need a metro ..and we need tons and tons of CITY apartments .. not 3 bed semis in Mullingar…
Another cornflakes box to join its brothers and sisters in the docklands
Looks a whole lot nicer than the normal steel rectangles anyway.
Good to see more office space being built as there’s such a big shortage right now which is set to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
Too Small once again. Planners are most definitely trying the best to keep Land values at a premium.
Should be twice the height.
I’m not sure how you call that pretty. Be nice to see some scope for architects to have a bit of creativity no just mundane crap
It’s an office building… Not a vanity project.
It’s built square for efficient floor plans, to make the most use of space, be efficient to heat and cool. It’s made out of glass to be bright, airy and let lots of light in. The most desirable characteristics of office space.
I don’t know what kind of imaginative curves, angles, grand staircases and plinths the critics of these projects as unimaginative are expecting.
What a great country we had, such a shame to many people of certain age got a say just cause a few tds wanted votes, and others then just gave up and took to many brown envelopes to ruin our lovely country, look at what we have made overseas look at London some of the biggest building projects are Irish.
Sounds like a great new building. When will they take it out of the box and is the box recyclable?
And there’s no other empty office buildings in and around this area that could be useful?
There all rented out
Rent is probably €1,000,000 a square foot
Before you start to spend the 100million on the buliding can u please buy me
Nissan skyline GTR it only costs 100k brand new
Taste is subjective, but I think this will be quite beautiful. It’s always hard to gauge from an artist’s impression but it looks to have a pleasing symmetry and a good stance, and the materials look interesting.
The only thing that bugs me in all those images is not the building, but the people. All dark suits and banker’s briefcases and big-cock-strides. Have you been down there lately? This the dominion of Facebook and Google. That’s Airbnb in the shed to the left. Maybe one employee in ten thousand around these parts goes for the undertaker look. Where are all the hoodies and fixies and beardies, the dyed hair and the asymmetrical bazzers?
I like the building though.
have your say