Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with a lot of what Deputy Dooley said. I believe we should concentrate on the electric vehicle issue. While there are also big issues in the gas network and biofuels areas, we need to concentrate our focus in this regard. Deputy Dooley is correct that there is no one in charge. This is incredible at a time when other countries are ramping up ambition. The German target is to have 1 million electric vehicles by 2020. It proposes to invest €500 million in its network. As we heard, Holland proposes to ban combustion engines by 2025. We are faffing around and decreasing our targets. We have already lowered the target from 200,000 to 50,000 and last week it was announced that this is to be reduced further to 20,000. The problem is not only that there is nobody in charge but that there is no ambition. We need to have another meeting with the CER and the Department because official government needs to answer for this. The reason we set high ambitious targets in 2008 is because there is a public good involved. Every year 3,000 people die prematurely because of air pollution. This is one of the ways we can save lives.

In regard to the consumer, there is a massive saving to the consumer in terms of lower maintenance charges. Electric vehicles are better and cheaper to maintain. We can save our consumers money by promoting electric vehicles. We import €6 billion of fossil fuel. If we go gang-busters on electric vehicles, we can cut back a good chunk of that. When setting the target in 2008 we were asked why it was being set at 10%. We worked out at that time that if we shaved off 10% of the electricity demand cycle by 400 megawatts at peak we could back-fill the trough by 400 million. That is worth billions of euro to this country and it is use of our own natural resources. There is public good if we deliver on this ambition. There is no reason we cannot do it. We need to be as ambitious as Norway. We are not that different to the Norwegians or Northern Ireland, where there are almost as many electric vehicles as in the South. This is not a behavioural issue. We are not different human beings. We need ambition.

I agree with the Chairman that if we do not get an answer today on when a decision will be made on the charges issue then we will have to come back to this issue. That decision must be taken from the viewpoint that this is a public good. There is huge public gain involved. This should not be viewed as a commercial investment for five years. The ESB research and investment should be increased from €25 million to €250 million and the decision on commercial application should be postponed. The €250 million investment will result in savings on imported fuel bills. We will also have better air quality and lives will be saved.

In terms of carbon emissions, our national climate change strategy is in tatters and in disgrace because we do not have the solutions that can deliver low carbon. We now have a viable solution in terms of the stance of motor companies and other countries on this issue. We need decisions at Department and regulatory level to ensure quick action and action of scale. We need a massive increase in ambition and, as stated by Deputy Dooley, we need someone to take charge. This committee has a job to represent the pioneering drivers in this area and to help them to overcome the difficulties they have. The key is in the regulatory decisions. I do not think the European Union will block us but we can discuss with the European Parliament representatives when we meet them next Friday what is allowed for under the winter package. I cannot believe that the European Commission or the new directive will block us if we are willing to make innovative regulatory decisions. We need to start making decisions. We need to start making investments and we need to have ambition. We need to reverse the decision made last week to reduce the target from 50,000 to 20,000 and we need to start doing what other countries are doing, such as impose a ban on combustion engines by 2025, as is being done by the Dutch. We would be the beneficiaries of this, with a renewable resource that needs this sort of balancing use of demand. It is a perfect fit for this country. We started well. The ESB was one of the leading companies in this area but that was on the back of leadership five or six years ago. In the absence of that leadership in the past five years we have fallen behind. We need to catch up again.