Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister's words and his experience as a commercial traveller across the pond. That is fine. I am making the point that this is all stick and no carrot. While it might be a three or four-year lease, the Minister will know very soon from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, SIMI, and many others that this will not work. The cost of living is a significant aspect of it but the infrastructure for those drivers is not there. The Chairman knows this as someone living in a rural county. It is not there by any stretch of the imagination. It is fine to say it has been flagged in the Finance Bill since 2019 but some are talking about wave energy and that has not happened. Is the Minister going to penalise these workers and their companies by forcing them to make investments when they cannot do so at probably the worst time in their business when they are trying to get sales, get paid for them and keep the business going? The Minister does not seem to pay any heed to the fact that the infrastructure is not there anywhere.

Take my town of Clonmel where there are two charging points of which I am aware, there is normally a queue for them. This used to be the biggest inland town and there are more than 20,000 people in it. The infrastructure is just not there so what are these people to do? The vehicles will not get them around full stop. I meet people who have some of these cars and they say they are great, there are plenty of charge points and they can charge them at home but in the country, particularly if the vehicles are fully electric, the fear is palpable that they will not get you to your destination and you cannot put in some sort of jump starter for any system because it is not there. It is all stick and no carrot. If times were anywhere near normal, you could understand the Minister's point of view but they are not. They are completely abnormal and it is just not going to happen. What will happen is that cars will get older, the diesel ones will not be replaced, there will be worse emissions and individuals' ability to spend in local economies and look after their families will be lessened. It could not come at a worse time so it is wrong. I know where the Minister is coming from when he asks when is the right time. Some of these same people have bought into previous initiatives like micro-generators and have no income from the ESB because the infrastructure is not there to send it back to the grid. People in rural Ireland are sick, sore and tired of being patronised, patted on the back and asked to be good boys and clean up their dirty act. We do not have the infrastructure full stop so this is not going to work. My colleagues and I asked for a report on this. If the Minister does a report anywhere in Dublin, he will find the same result. The charging infrastructure is not there full stop.