Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Could Mr. Creegan come back to us with a figure for the preparation budget for the three projects?

I would like to move on to electric vehicles, EVs. The 46,615 in the State. Approximately 21,000 were bought in the first 11 months of last year according to the figures that we have. In the Dublin area, 9,816 were bought in that 11-month period in 2021. There are 159 charging points in the Dublin area. People would accept that there is regular public transport in the Dublin area, as there should be, and it needs to be improved. This is not an argument of urban versus rural. I want to make that clear. I understand why there needs to be efficient public transport and continuous work to improve all the time in our capital city and in other cities and towns. In County Laois there are 457 EVs and there are 249 in County Offaly. That compares with 21,519 in Dublin. There are ten charging points in Laois and there are eight in Offaly. That is the best information that I can get via the mapping from the Department or from the NTA. There are 159 points in Dublin. The point that I am trying to make is that there is substantial investment being put into public transport in the Dublin area, as there should be. However, we are caught in a situation in rural counties where the EV is not an option at the moment. One can see that the greatest of number of subsidies for EVs are in the greater Dublin area. A greater number are being bought there. The number of charging points is higher in Dublin, as I would expect it to be. I am trying to point out, however, that the numbers are tiny in rural counties such as Laois and Offaly. The number of vehicles that are being bought as a result of that is tiny. This is because we do not have the infrastructure. As well as this, range anxiety is a real issue because the technology is not there yet.

The other point I wanted to raise about EVs relates to a reply to a parliamentary question that my colleague, Deputy Darren O'Rourke, obtained about the latter. I was taken aback by this, because I had thought people who buy EVs were careful about money and might be a little frugal. I do not mean that in a bad or derogatory way. I thought that they might be careful about the environment. However, the list of vehicles bought last year is jaw dropping. It included Jaguars, Land Rovers, BMWs and Mercedes. There were huge numbers of them. From an NTA and Department issue point of view, and I know this policy issue, but maybe we should look at this again. Are we subsidising Mercedes-Benz, Jaguars, Land Rovers, BMWs and huge Audis in and around the cities where there are already extensive public transport networks?

I do not want to be too parochial about this, but people who live in rural counties like Laois and Offaly are stuck with petrol or diesel cars and they might not have the money to change them. The option of charging points is not there. The infrastructure is not there. There is also the range issue, which will hopefully be improved, although I think that hydrogen will be the real gig. EVs are not an option in these places because of price, the lack of charging points and range anxiety. Ms Graham might comment on that.

It certainly opened my eyes when I saw the reply to the Parliamentary question on what we are subsidising. I am for subsidising EVs, by the way. I do not want this to be taken up wrong, but are we subsidising 4-tonne cars in areas where 1-tonne cars would do because there is already good public transport?