Mr. Kenneth Spratt:

There is nothing in what the Senator said that I disagree with. We have significant challenges ahead. It is the case that we would get much better value for money and much bigger bang for our buck in cities. There is no doubt about that. Our approaches to 2030 and 2050 are almost parallel. Our approach to 2030 will be around maximising and getting as many electric vehicles, EVs, on the road as we possibly can. We have to try to get 960,000 EVs on the road by 2030. There will also be a bit around biofuels in terms of diesel and petrol and there will be a bit about trying to educe the demand for car journeys using internal combustion engine, ICE, cars. The key point the Senator makes around value for money in urban areas being much better than in rural areas is true. We will roll out the Connecting Ireland initiative.

The pilot projects that we rolled out in Leitrim, for example, have gone really well. That will require a significant increase in the public service obligation, PSO, funding for rural areas. Based on the strategic approach that we have taken to rural transport and working with stakeholders like the HSE, for example, and understanding what are the needs of people during the day, evening and night, and where do they want to get to and from where, the Connecting Ireland pilot project has gone very well.

We have managed to secure in the budget significant additional resources for 2022 to roll out more pilot schemes. We will learn a lot from those. It is our intention that we would have a Connecting Ireland facility and service throughout all of Ireland in all rural areas. There is a strong commitment, from Government, for that.

I would hope that we will make very good progress and that people would, as the services are rolled out, think whether a particular service meets their needs. There might be a need for a bit of a sacrifice and people may have to leave a little earlier or later. We hope, however, that we can get a better bang for our buck in terms of our PSO investments in the Connecting Ireland scheme in rural areas.

There is an opportunity in terms of hydrogen. We have just set up a sixth assistant secretary area within the Department. This is something I did when I came in and took over because I felt that we needed to look at all aspects of climate action. We are recruiting at the moment for a lead for that area. We have four principal officers in there who are doing all of the thinking that we need to do around making sure that we achieve the objectives that have been set for us by the Government and the Oireachtas and that we do it in as just a way as possible. One of the things that we are looking at is the establishment of an office of low-emitting vehicles in the context of private vehicles and heavy goods vehicles. There is a significant opportunity for hydrogen, as well as compressed natural gas and biomethane.

The Department is responsible for ports infrastructure. One of the things that we are doing is working quite closely with our colleagues in the Departments of Environment, Climate and Communications and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. We also work closely with our colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine who have responsibility for the Irish Maritime Development Office and what happens at sea. We want to make sure that ports are fit for purpose when it comes to harvesting the opportunity that presents with offshore renewable energy. There is a very significant opportunity not just to power the country but to get into using hydrogen, particularly as a transport fuel.

I accept that the challenges that lie ahead in terms of rural mobility and access will be tough nuts to crack. However, we have some good ideas on how to make progress.