Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

These narratives that we must have electric vehicles for rural Ireland need to be dispelled because if many of the journeys people who live in rural Ireland do are often no different from those that people in the cities do. They involve travelling a couple of kilometres to the sports ground, the church or the shops. The obvious issue is safety. We need safe networks such that if somebody wants to jump on their bike or electric bike and go 6 or 7 km or whatever it is, they will do that if it is safe to do so. If it is not safe because we have not provided the networks, they are more likely to jump in their car, albeit an electric car.