Mr. Eddie Burke:

To finish on the issue of subsidiarity, the reason we do not see a subsidiary piece here is that there has to be, from our point of view, consistency of experience by all in the transport sector. Someone who takes a car by ferry to France can be sure there will be a network of electric charging points available. That information is available. In the case of a ship, fuel can be picked up wherever it is needed. In the case of an airline landing in an airport, whether in Paris or Estonia, the experience is the same. To pick up on the Deputy's point, the alternative is that one has mismatch. That is not what we want for businesses and consumers. As an island nation, that common experience is not within our gift. That is a very important reason for us. Road hauliers will not cross to the Continent using electric vehicles unless certain they can be serviced on the far side. It is that piece. We can all do our piece individually but the individual pieces may not match into one coherent piece. We need that coherent piece.

The other piece, which was already mentioned, is that in some cases the EU is leading the world on this. That is particularly the case in the maritime area. It sends a much more powerful message when the EU does this. Within that, we have concerns. To take the issue the Senator mentioned, in the maritime area, for example, we do not know what the solution will be in terms of fuel but a review will take place within five years to allow that. It will not be down to the ship owners. They could be impact by something over which they have no control, such as the availability of fuel. All of this will be kept in mind as we work together. From a subsidiarity point of view, we need coherence between all member states.