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

We will ask the Secretary General that question.

We move on to correspondence from and related to private individuals and any other correspondence.

No. 1311C, dated 16 June 2022, was circulated by the secretariat for members’ information. It contains an overview of Ireland's electric vehicle incentives and a comparison with international peers, which was published by the Parliamentary Budget Office. It provides useful objective information. We have corresponded with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications on the matter. It is proposed to note and publish this correspondence.

We raised this question with departmental officials when they appeared before the committee. Many of the vehicles being purchased were very large ones, including Range Rover, BMW and Mercedes vehicles, with most of them being bought in the greater Dublin area. One could draw the conclusion that they were not doing very long journeys whereas the people down the country who are travelling longer distances in diesel or petrol cars could not afford to purchase electric vehicles. The explanation here is peculiar. It confirms that financial support for electric vehicles is regressive and tends to benefit those at the higher end of the income distribution. We should ask the Department why we continue with the grant system we have if it acknowledges that is the case.

Since the introduction of the EV grant, 27,546 vehicles have been supported at a cost of €130 million, which is a substantial amount of money. There is also €166 million forgone in VRT. Altogether, that is almost €300 million and much of that is being spent supporting people to purchase very large vehicles. Do people spending €80,000 or €100,000 on an enormous SUV really need the EV grant? The committee should question departmental officials when they also acknowledge it is regressive. Is it agreed that we correspond with the Department on that?