Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and thank all of the witnesses. Putting it simply, it is quite clear from all of the evidence that more people die, more people are injured and our emissions are going in the wrong direction from these heavier vehicles and also from the height and structure of the vehicles themselves. The question is what to do about that because all the evidence is quite clear. The ramp up of EVs is being offset, at least partially, be the size of these vehicles and there is little choice for consumers. If it is not an SUV, it is at least a crossover, particularly on the EV market, at this stage. What I am hearing quite clearly from Professor Daly is that if we do not take action now, it will almost be too late, we will fail to hit our targets and all choice will be eliminated from the market.

I attended the ploughing championships last week. We can certainly see, with vehicles being towed out by tractors, that we need different types of vehicles for different terrain. As has been pointed out from many of the responses that the witnesses have given and their opening statements, however, this started as a status symbol, we have arrived at this position from urban, not rural, sales of these vehicles and those vehicles are the ones at the higher end of the numbers of sales. What exactly are the policies that can shift things? Is it to do with weight tax? Is it to do with incentivising people through, as Senator Boylan said, reduced tolls for smaller vehicles in a clear set of policy measures? How fast can we implement that and how fast should we do so?