Ms Tatiana Samsonova:

I thank the Deputy. I can only concur with his comments and with the statement my colleague, Dr. Windisch, made previously. We tried to highlight in the report that it is indeed very important that only focusing on improved types of measures and on electrification is an extremely costly way to decarbonise the transport system in Ireland. It will drain budgets and is still going in the direction of car ownership, which is the opposite direction in which we want to be moving if we are thinking in terms of improving well-being and quality of life. Improving well-being and quality of life is about reducing reliance on private cars which occupy a lot of space, in urban areas in particular. They occupy both parking and road space. That is why for the International Transport Forum, in particular, one of the key points is to focus on avoid and shift types of measures. Those include managing travel demand and that is why one of the recommendations in the report is to think about considering congestion charges, which are a way to spread demand throughout the day. We should not think about it as a financial burden or a price we are putting on all private vehicles. The idea is, rather, to make drivers pay for all the negative externalities they are producing, including noise, congestion, the use of public space and so on and so forth.

We also highlight many positive shifts that are happening in Ireland, in particular the shift of investment budgets from road construction, that is quite counterproductive and only induces demand to public transport, to specifically having 15% or 20% of the budget dedicated to improving cycling and walking conditions. That is extremely important.

We see in other countries, for instance, and I will give this example from here in Paris, that a huge strategy to reallocate road space to cycling and walking actually brought an increase in and modal shift to cycling and walking. Many people now cycle, walk or use public transport go to work, especially given the situation with Covid-19 where people still feel a little bit wary when it comes to using public transport. We do not really want that demand to be consumed by people using cars but rather shaped to sustainable modes. Reallocation of road space, in particular, is one of the key things Ireland can consider and hence improve conditions for walking and cycling.

I feel from the discussions we have had that some positive shifts are happening but a lot of thoughts and hopes are still put on subsidising electric vehicles. I believe this needs to be reassessed. It may not bring Ireland towards the targets and in the direction it actually wants to go.