Mr. Denis O'Sullivan:

I thank the Senator. If I have not got all of his points he might please flag them to me. I might just make one clarification on the CNG station that was opened in 2018 in Dublin Port. It was the first publicly accessible CNG station. In fact, the company the Senator referenced, Virginia International Logistics, has been utilising CNG for a number of years and was one of the pioneers of CNG as a fuel. In terms the viability of CNG for smaller operators, it is certainly viable. At the moment there is no support mechanism other than the grant support that GNI provides, which is a limited grant, part funded through the European Union, for the uptake of vehicles. Our intention is to roll out a suite of publicly accessible stations, essentially refuelling forecourts, which will allow operators who have one vehicle or multiple vehicles to refuel at those points. Our view is that we will have a combination of private and public stations in the 172 stations. Many of the large haulage companies at the moment, including the one the Senator referenced, have their own refuelling infrastructure. We want to accommodate them as well as the smaller operators in private stations. In terms of its viability, we advocate that some supports need to be put in place to support the transition from a diesel vehicle to a CNG vehicle for all operators. In terms of cost of abatement of CO2, it is a low cost of abatement and one we believe should be supported for truck, bus or commercial vehicle operators.