Dr. Brian Caulfield:

I thank Deputy Devlin for what is again a very interesting question. One of the striking statistics I often use with my students on sharing vehicles is that cars spend 95% of their time parked, so it is an extremely wasteful asset. On how we would use it for a just transition and shared mobility, I do see that there is a space there whereby cars could be used almost as a public good in the same way as public transport, and that there would be networks of people that could use the vehicles. On the road I live on, one could ask if the eight cars that are parked there are required all the time - perhaps they are not. When one looks at just transitioning and the budgets that people will have to pay to transfer to a low-carbon economy, sharing these types of assets will become much more prevalent in the future. I think it will definitely be a way of reducing the burden on households.