Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I remember from my time as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport that while the subvention that was made available to the CIE group had gone down, it is not a third of where it was in the past. The subvention going into the CIE group for this year is approximately €265 million. I think that is the figure, though I stand to be corrected on it. It is at least flat on where it was a year ago, if not an increase. Deputy Murphy's approach of describing the Government's attitude to public transport as being slash and burn would come as a bit of a surprise to all those commuters I am looking forward to seeing getting on Luas cross-city in the second week of December, which is an investment in public transport of many hundreds of millions of euro. Investment is under way in respect of how we improve public transport both at a capital and current level. It needs to be accompanied, however, by encouraging the roll-out of electric vehicles. This is on top of what we have at the moment. We have VRT relief of up to €5,000 per vehicle. We have an SEAI grant of €5,000 for individuals and €3,800 for businesses.

On Deputy Michael McGrath's point, it is my ultimate intention to have the 0% benefit-in-kind in place for the medium term between three and five years. I did say that in my budget speech. I also stated, which pertains to the Deputy's point, that I would look to review it after a year. The reason for that is I expect to have the review of benefit-in-kind for vehicles back with me by then. However, I take the Deputy's point that it is important to give medium-term certainty, particularly to employers who will be providing these cars. It is my intention that it will be in place for a minimum of three years.