Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. As for the section of their presentation on the use of compressed natural gas, I reiterate how proud we are in my area of Virginia International Logistics, the Cole family transport company which has converted its trucks to compressed natural gas, CNG and went to the Continent recently using CNG. It is a great breakthrough and I congratulate the firm on its initiative. In their presentation, the witnesses made the point that the first CNG refuelling station was opened in 2018. They stated that:

CNG offers an immediate reduction of over 20% in CO₂emissions [which would be extremely important] when compared to diesel and will facilitate the introduction of renewable gas into transport, offering a fully carbon neutral transport fuel. With a further six CNG stations currently in construction and development, our ambition is to ultimately have a network of 172 public and private stations.

That is a great ambition around which I want to ask some questions. For the regular, small transport companies that dot our country and on which we depend so much, margins are quite tight as the witnesses are aware anecdotally if not otherwise. How financially realistic is it for them to make this conversion? What level of support exists at present? From Mr. O'Sullivan's knowledge, which is quite deep, obviously, of CNG and conversion to its use, what kind of grant aid or support should exist that does not currently exist? Is that level of grant aid realistic in terms of the national climate change plan and the overall economics around the climate change agenda? Is it a realistic option? I would like to believe that it is but I would like the witnesses' clarification there. Is there a question of economies of scale in this regard? Is it really the big fleets that can do it? How do we manage the popularisation or the spreading of it?