Ms Andrea Lennon:

Between 16% and 18% or 1.1 megatonnes of carbon reduction will come from biofuels, and that would be to achieve a B20 E10 blend in petrol. We will do that by steps every year of about 3% or 4% in the biofuel blending rate so that we will hit that target in 2030.

On alternative fuels, there is CNG biomethane, hydrogen fuel cells and electrification. We are looking at refuelling infrastructure. Under EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations, or AFIR, there will be requirements to have hydrogen refuelling stations. There is already a roll-out of CNG biomethane refuelling stations, by Gas Networks Ireland, which is heavily funded by the EU as well.

On fuel, more investment is needed in green hydrogen production and the route to market for green hydrogen. We hope that the hydrogen strategy by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications will help in that process or provide a regulatory framework for that.

On regulations, there is a need to look at regulations for green hydrogen. We are carrying out a study, in conjunction with Northern Ireland, under the shared island fund, on the safety and economic regulation on green hydrogen, particularly focusing on transport use.

On public transport, we had the hydrogen fuel cell bus trial on three buses. The outcome and report showed that electric still has stronger case in terms of public transport buses. The NTA has recently announced that it will focus on electric transport for urban centres. For regional routes, the NTA is still open to hydrogen fuel cell technology in a small quantity perhaps. There are still a lot of unknowns about the operation of those buses. Indeed, we will learn a lot in terms of the electric bus fleet. We have a bit of a way to go on that. The timeline for the NTA to consider hydrogen fuel cell will be post 2024 in terms of its current tender.