Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

There is a high-up value threshold of €60,000, which is the maximum limit for a car that can get a grant of €5,000. The lower limit is €14,000. There are no cars at the lower level. The grant is even right across the board. Originally, we were giving grants to plug-in hybrids, which also had petrol and diesel. That was phased out because, there was a battery plus an engine on that car. The grant is now only for battery electric vehicles. This is about making sure as many emissions are removed from the system as possible. It is emissions based, rather looking at what the market is doing. We are narrowing the bands as necessary.

Following on from Deputy Carthy’s question, the total cost of ownership of an electric car, for anybody doing the maths, is way less than a petrol or diesel car. It is about anybody right around Ireland looking at what it costs them to run on petrol and diesel, as well as the cost of their loan or whether the vehicle was second hand. They could probably get a new electric car and run it for less than they would for a second-hand petrol or diesel car at the moment. We are encouraging everybody to look at this, anywhere in Ireland. Everybody should be doing the maths and seeing that this is an opportunity.