Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendment No. 75. It is a positive amendment. I do not need to list the benefits of electric vehicles, especially with regard to emissions. This refers to carbon emissions but we also have to consider air pollution and noise pollution. I wonder if there is an opportunity to address within the Bill the issue of internal combustion engines idling. It is particularly problematic where vehicles are congregating around schools. Is there an opportunity in the Bill to address the issue of leaving engines idling for periods of time at specific locations?

I have another comment. In encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles, which rolling out the network will do, we have to ensure that we are not encouraging extra-large electric vehicles onto our roads. These take up an unnecessary amount of space and the extra weight they carry makes them less efficient. There seems to be a general move among car purchasers in Ireland to go for those larger vehicles. This is probably more of a policy issue than something to cover within legislation but there are probably legislative changes that could be made to disincentivise the purchase of unnecessarily large EVs and to encourage the purchase of much more suitable EVs for personal use.