Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I apologise because I was in the Dáil and I am dipping in and out of the meeting. I missed caught of the opening statements. I missed many of the questions of committee members, so the witnesses can be certain that I will repeat some of them. I will plough on.

Dr. Byrne commented in his opening statement on many of the negative aspects of a move towards 1 million EVs on the road. His point was on reliance on EVs. I think I am the most rural Deputy on the committee. I am down in west Cork, which is a four-hour drive from Dublin. I firmly believe in active travel and more frequent, better public transport. Everyone can attest to the fact that I continually push for these but I believe that even if we introduce a concept such as a service in every village every hour, it will still leave many challenges. I would like Dr. Byrne to comment on this. While we want to move towards more active travel and public transport, surely EVs will play a greater role in places like west Cork, peninsular areas and other rural areas.

If I am misdirecting my questions, I would not mind the help of the Chairman. I believe my next one is for Mr. Cooke. In the past few months, I have been able to visualise far more EVs on the road. In only a few years, the majority of cars on the road will be electric. I hope that in five, six or seven years, those EVs will be powered in people's houses and that, in Clonakilty, where I am from, they will be powered entirely from clean, renewable energy from floating offshore wind facilities. I hope motorists will have no range anxiety when heading to Dublin from a place like Clonakilty. The range of the cars is increasing all the time. We are seeing more products on the market and more car manufacturers excelling in the EV space. Am I way off the mark with that kind of vision? Everyone present will have noticed that the number of EVs on the roads is increasing every week. We have seen that in the percentages. Is my vision a reality? When will there be a critical mass that will make EVs more affordable and result in a variety of products with sufficient ranges, such that one's next car will be an EV?

The next question is for the ESB. Much of the charging will be done from people's homes. The battle to convince local authorities to install fast chargers in their space and public car parks is like coming up against a brick wall. Clonakilty is a perfect example. It has one fast charger. It is a matter of getting to it first if one can, which is not good enough. It is not an incentive.

I apologise if my questions have been touched on already but I was late for the call.