Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

From my perspective, I first thank the Minister for the mention in his opening statement of the greenway connection from Malahide to Donabate.

It is a welcome piece of infrastructure that I am very much looking forward to. It has been in planning for quite a number of years. In fact, when I was Mayor of Fingal, it got a mention in my opening remarks because the collapse of the bridge which had happened relatively recently. It is fantastic to see projects like that. I was reared walking the byways and highways of this country with my parents who were avid walkers with a walking group called Na Coisithe, which my mother is still involved with 40 years later. I spent a huge amount of time every second Sunday down the country. These greenways mentioned by the Minister in his opening remarks and, indeed, in the public service performance report, PSPR, are very welcome.

I will touch upon a few matters with the Minister and then I will go to a couple of the points made within the document that has been circulated to members.

First, I refer to some of the statistics which the Minister has provided to us, bearing in mind that it is 2023 we are looking at, with regard to the uptake of EVs and the rolling out of the electrical vehicle charging infrastructure. As a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, I have had regular engagements with the Minister on this issue over the years. My own local authority, that is, the four Dublin local authorities working together, published their plan recently, which is most welcome. I cannot help but feel that momentum was lost because of the length of time it took them to produce that documentation, those plans and locations. Is that a common theme across the local authorities in the productions of those reports and site identifications? Can the Minister comment on that?

My other query on EV uptake is on the rather worrying figures, or perhaps the Minister has a contrary opinion, on how we are progressing with the EV uptake in 2024. I appreciate that we are looking at 2023 but could the Minister elucidate his, or the rationale of the Department, for that reduction in uptake as a percentage of the market and whether there are regulatory barriers in Ireland that are presenting in that? Perhaps the Minister might address those points initially.