Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We sell 7,500 EVs per year and another 7,500 on top of that but it is 7:1 compared with diesel and petrol. We will not hit the target for 2030. The scrappage scheme is important because it will tackle the affordability anxiety people have. We do not have range anxiety in Ireland; we have affordability anxiety. The vast majority of people, even with the measures brought in by the Government, still cannot afford to switch to an electric vehicle. Something has been brought in for the SPSV sector. That is a good thing. There are other sectors and other ways of bringing this in. The Minister of State mentioned the word "niche". We can look at older cars. We can look at areas and at people living outside of public transport nodes who do not have access to bus and rail and incentivise them through scrappage schemes.

The other thing about a scrappage scheme that is important is that there is no use having an electric vehicle if the vehicle it replaces in the family home is sold as a second-hand vehicle and remains on the road somewhere else or is given to an adult child in the household. The emissions will be the same.

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