Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank Ms Sayers and Deputy Smith. Before a second round, I might ask one or two questions. A few years ago, I decided my next car would be an electric vehicle but they were too expensive, and there was certainly range anxiety. I decided I would keep driving my internal combustion engine vehicle and I did so until it broke down. The price of EVs had not come down, nor had the technology improved, and I decided to go without a car for a while. I have not got the EV since then. I have gone five years without a car. I have been getting by quite well, by bike, by bus and by train. In many respects, my life is much easier not having a car.

I am interested in the point made by Dr. Byrne. It is something I have noticed in my experience in recent years. The space that electric vehicles are taking up, especially in urban areas, is quite concerning. You only have to look to photographs of the streets of our towns, village and cities from the past to see that the vehicles before were much smaller. There seems to be a trend where vehicles, particular electric vehicles, are physically quite big. That is a considerable problem. There are all kinds of consequences to that. The value of space in our towns and cities is high and it is increasingly being taken up by vehicles and electric vehicles. I would be interested to hear further from Dr. Byrne on this point but perhaps I could put a question to Mr. Cooke. Would Mr. Cooke acknowledge this and, if so, will he advise on incentives to promote the uptake of smaller electric vehicles? In other countries such as France and Italy that have old cities with narrow streets, it is perhaps more obvious that they need smaller electric vehicles. Is Mr. Cooke aware of incentives? Should we be looking at incentives in this country for physically smaller electric vehicles?