Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ms Hanlon said that there will be no diesel-only buses from next year. What does she mean by that? Will the Department be buying diesel-electric vehicles or electric-only vehicles after that? A few weeks of trials do not test anything about how a vehicle performs. The battery performance of electric vehicles must be tested for three years. I presume Ms Hanlon is aware that the transport budget will need to accommodate an automatic 20% rise in fuel costs. If the Department buys biodiesel or electric-diesel buses or vehicles with two different types of fuel, its budget will fuel eight buses instead of ten. That is going by the prices. Has a budget been laid out? Costs are 20% higher. Is Ms Hanlon confident the Department will not be buying a pig in a bag? I have had machinery all my life and I know that weeks of use do not test something.

Things should be tested for three years or perhaps five years in order to find out whether they are going to rob or make a person.