Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 July 2023

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Summer Economic Statement 2023: Discussion

Photo of Brian LeddinBrian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was not alluding to programme for Government interpretations but I appreciate the Minister's point that there are commitments in that regard. I very much welcome his answer.

I raise an issue with the Minister, Deputy McGrath, that I previously raised with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, when he was in his former role. There is an objective in budgets to have a more targeted approach to the supports for electric vehicles, EVs. We are really ramping up those supports. It is right to do so because there is a very ambitious target to be met in this regard. There is a precedent whereby taxi drivers have been supported with a grant for EVs to the tune of approximately €36,000. That was very successful. There is an argument for the same to be done for other cohorts. While acknowledging the risk associated with broadening such supports to many cohorts, there still is an argument to consider one particular cohort, which is the home help sector. The people involved are generally low paid and car dependent. They generally use their own car, which means it is often the family car being used for work. Through no fault of their own, they are responsible for a lot of mileage and, therefore, emissions. It might be a little challenging to define that cohort but, if we can define it, we could perhaps consider a time-limited support. The cohort may include related healthcare workers. Such a support makes a lot of sense and would align with our ambition to reach the target number of EVs. Separate to the environmental benefit, there is a huge social benefit as well in such a support.