Dr. Brian Caulfield:

That model is in city centres where they are like a Dublinbike. They sit there and people can come along and book their trips. It gets people to think more about their trip because the price is higher than using public transport or cycling. There is definitely a role for industry here too. If people are driving to places of work, it could be done using shared cars. Dr. Daly correctly pointed out that transport, land use and housing are all interconnected. Transport connects where we work and live. In the strategic housing developments all around the country, we can encourage local authorities to change parking requirements. If a housing development is in an area that is densely populated, shared vehicles are the alternative. Dublin City Council has a number of fantastic examples of where this is working. That is where the State should invest and policy should drive that forward. We are talking about a shared vehicle. If we can get ten people to use an EV for a €13,000 incentive, we would get much bigger bang for our buck. We are looking at behavioural change as well. We are getting people to think about when and why they are travelling, because they only have access to this shared vehicle.

We need to pilot these things. A shared pilot for EVs will not be that expensive relative to the big transport projects we are looking at. We should pilot those schemes.