Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The State takes climate change seriously, as does our Department. It was not taken seriously enough in the past and we had targets which may have been too ambitious but were there all the same. The green public transport fund was established to cover the difference in price between those buses which were diesel-fuelled, hybrids and other forms of environmentally friendly, low emissions vehicles. That fund is part of the carbon reduction programme, to support the uptake of low-carbon, energy efficient technologies within the public transport fleet. The fund is intended to address the price differential to which I referred. Funding will also be allocated from that fund to accelerate electric vehicle uptake rates, following a recent recommendation from the low emissions vehicles, LEV, task force, as part of the 2018 budgetary estimates process. This will include the introduction of a new tolling centre regime to incentivise ultra-low emitting cars. Further details will be finalised by the LEV task force. I acknowledge the Deputy's point and ask him to remember that buses only represent a small part of emissions.

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