Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I just sought clarification on that. Dr. FitzGerald referred to incentives earlier and we have advocated an increase in incentives in this area. What do we have at the moment? There are approximately 4,000 electric cars on our roads. Many people want to do the right thing but there are challenges in respect of the infrastructure, certainty and so on. Despite those challenges, people are still purchasing and investing. Not everyone is doing long commutes and so on but these cars are beyond the means of lots of people who want to do the right thing. It was suggested that the current incentives are appropriately priced but given the target we need to reach within ten years, would it be appropriate to increase the bands that are available? The upper limit of the bands under SEAI is €5,000 for a car. The technology is changing, particularly in terms of the range issue which worries lots of people. Next year, the range will be greater and so on but €5,000 for a car that costs €35,000 or €40,000 is not a major support.