Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary)
Vote 31 - Transport (Supplementary)

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the Minister of State. The Minister of State’s initial point, which I accept, is that when people are thinking about making the change, to make information available to them. I presume that that case does not and should not have to be made to the public sector. The public sector should be ready to make that move now. I will leave that point with the Minister of State. Those are the figures that I have where the State has 4,000 extra vehicles, a tiny fraction of which are electric. The State needs to lead on this. I know that there are 2030 targets and commitments as to when the State will not invest in fossil fuel vehicles but I believe we need to make greater progress on that.

Moving on to aviation, there have been a number of comments of support for the sector. There is a commitment in the New Decade, New Approach agreement for Dublin-Derry and Cork-Belfast routes. I believe a review is under way on those. I know from speaking to people in those regions that there might reasonably be a question of why one would want to introduce or reintroduce those routes. In the first instance it is about regional connectivity but there has been a bigger point that has been raised consistently by me which is that it is not just about Cork-Belfast or Dublin-Derry. It is Dublin-Derry where that creates Derry-Glasgow and Glasgow-Donegal. It is Cork-Belfast but that creates Belfast-Cork and Cork-Britain. It is about the interconnectivity and being highly networked. Can I have an update please on that review, when it will conclude how quickly we might see proposals on those routes?