Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank our three speakers for what have been really interesting presentations. We are tight for time so I will focus on electric vehicles, EVs. Dr. O'Mahony made some interesting comments in his opening statement. He said that because of the deeper emissions reduction target, it is a risky and potentially costly gamble to rely on electric vehicles to meet that target. Our target is for 950,000 EVs by 2030. It is obvious we have not had a very good track record in rolling out EVs or the infrastructure for same. We are still struggling on that front, with only 7.4% of new passenger sales in 2020 being EVs. That compares with 74.8% in Norway or indeed 18.1% in Finland. If the target of 950,000 by 2030 is not achievable, what kind of target does Dr. O'Mahony think is feasible? What are the kind of changes the Government would need to put in place to ensure the target was met, because meeting even a significantly reduced target would be difficult at this stage?

I am also interested in Dr. O'Mahony's opinion on using EVs to meet that target and how cost-prohibitive they are. Is there a risk there will be a whole section of our community who cannot afford to use this technology and therefore, when it comes to a just transition and ensuring everyone can play their part the cost will exclude them from that?