Mr. Jim Waldron:

The conflict for drivers regarding the grant is that the grant is considered good. Most associations encourage drivers to use EVs. The process is the problem. Buying an all-electric ID4 car could cost between €55,000 and €61,000, depending on where it is bought. A person can get €25,000 in grants for that vehicle. To buy the car, he or she has to borrow the total cost of the car because the grant does not come until three months after the car has been approved. The process can take approximately three weeks. Taxi drivers have to scrap their vehicle, meaning that they could be off the road for three weeks while waiting to collect their EV and get it licensed for the road.

Various issues need to be addressed. The Department of Transport has referred to microfinance, which only lends up to €25,000. I cannot buy half an ID.4. There are issues as regards process. Nobody is saying the electric vehicle grant is not a good thing. It is a good thing and most associations appreciate it. We would like more, but we are moving positively towards it. As I said, the sight of a taxi driver driving an electric vehicle is an endorsement of a vehicle, generally speaking, that will encourage other people in private enterprise to go electric as well. We need to work together on it. We have never been included in the process. The point we keep coming back to all the time is that the associations do not have a forum to deal directly with the Department of Transport on many of these matters. That is what we need.