Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On incentivising the purchase of electric vehicles, there is some positive news on the levels of uptake among those purchasing EVs. I take the point that we have ambitious targets, with 1 million vehicles by 2030. We want to look at incentives such as low-interest loans. An office or one-stop-shop has been set up for those who want to purchase electric vehicles and seeing how we can incentivise that. By the middle of this decade, that is, by 2025 or 2026, the cost of an EV or a petrol or diesel vehicle will be on a par. The trajectory will be out to 2030. We are not saying that everyone needs to buy an electric vehicles in the next year or two. There is an increase of approximately 25,000 new registrations in 2021 to meet the target of 42,540 registered EVs on Irish roads. The number of new EVs registered to the end of October this year is 16,000. EVs now represent 15.59% of total car registrations. Work will have to take place in that regard. The reason we are here today is to say that we will continue the roll out of the grant scheme. The charging system across the country is also key because of range anxiety. The ESB is rolling out that infrastructure across the country. It is an ambitious target. The Government and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is working to ensure that we can back up the infrastructure availability with those who want to purchase vehicles. We do have a ten-year window. We want to incentivise people in order that they are able to afford it.