Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate. l confine my comments to two areas, namely, agriculture and transport. On agriculture, I have a basic and simple principle. We encouraged farmers, particularly those on the dairy side, to be more productive and increase cattle numbers. We have to find a way to support the productive farmer. If there are other areas where people wish to scale back, we need to support them in doing that. We need to find a model to preserve a sector that is highly efficient in global terms but contributes a high proportion of our carbon emissions. This will be difficult and it is where the transition fund must play a key role.

I will confine my comments to transport to electric vehicles. I speak to taxi drivers and ordinary people. People are making a seismic shift and considering buying an electric car. Many taxi drivers have already made the switch. They tell me that if their vehicle qualifies and based on the grant of €20,000 and the savings they will make from the difference in the price of petrol and diesel versus electric charging, they can change to a new electric car virtually at neutral cost. That is a good model. The key feature is getting people to move to electric vehicles. As with many others, I would like my next car to be electric. The question is how I will take that step.

The target of having 1 million electric cars by 2030 is an ambitious one. In this case, however, the target has to be ambitious. The key issues are cost and charging points. Do we have enough charging points? How long will it take to charge a car? That is a key question. On how electric cars are used, they are good for commuter driving but travelling any sort of distance depletes the battery.

In summary, the issue is how we use the just transition to reach our targets. In farming, the transition fund must be used to ensure that people who are productive in farming are supported. We need to find a way of ensuing non-productive areas make an exponential contribution towards carbon reductions. We must not put young, productive farmers - male or female - in a position where they have to reduce their herd. That is not an easy challenge but it is, nonetheless, an important one.

On electric cars, we-----

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