Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials who have come before us. I am really disappointed that Deputy Cowen has had to leave, because in his broad political point-scoring contribution, where he did not ask any questions, I was struck by the fact that different people can look at the same plan and see different things. Deputy Cowen saw a political reaction to recent elections, while Friends of the Irish Environment have called it the biggest innovation in climate policy in 20 years. Who does one believe? I was struck by one of the points made earlier that one of the reason we are close to the 2020 targets was because of the recession between when they were set in 2005 and now. I suppose Fianna Fáil's contribution to climate change was to crash the economy, quadruple the national debt and cause a recession. Just as Fine Gael fixed the massive job losses of that recession, going from 16% to 5% through the Action Plan for Jobs, that is exactly the approach that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, now plans to take in a detailed way through this plan, with 183 actions and a quarterly report.

I will not duplicate the questions that were asked earlier. We have a generous regime of taxation incentives to promote the uptake of electric vehicles with VRT relief and the BIK regime and that. Do the witnesses think they are set at the right level or do the rates of taxation incentives for electric vehicles need to be looked at? In regard to VRT and motor tax on private cars, which has been calculated on the basis of CO2 emissions, with higher emissions attracting a higher tax liability, how do they suggest that should be changed to better impact climate action into the future?