Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Electric vehicles are the most prominent transport mitigation measure in the 2021 climate action plan. There is an ambitious target of 945,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030. This is challenging but indicates the scale of the transformation needed.

I am acutely aware that the cost of electric vehicles remains an issue for many consumers and that supply chain issues globally have also proven difficult. These have been exacerbated by international events. For these reasons our policy measures are being kept under continuous review. The Department convened the electric vehicle policy pathway working group to produce a roadmap to achieving the 2030 electric vehicle target. This group considered a variety of regulatory, financial and taxation policies to accelerate electric vehicle adoption including scrappage schemes. The group concluded that a general scrappage scheme would entail significant additional costs and not necessarily deliver the desired objective in terms of net carbon emissions. However it concluded that niche markets scrappage schemes could potentially play an important role, such as in the small public service vehicle sector that we mentioned earlier. The recommendations of the group were approved by Government and as a result the key range of supports to support the transition to electric vehicles will continue until at least the end of this year.

These measures include purchase grants for private car owners and taxi drivers, vehicle registration tax, VRT, relief, reduced tolls, home charger grants, favourable motor and benefit-in-kind tax rates as well as a comprehensive charging network. These are among the most generous suite of measures available across Europe and they have collectively contributed to an increased take up of electric vehicles in Ireland in recent years to more than 55,000, representing a growing share of the overall market for new vehicles.

An implementation group has been established to progress the recommendations and consider further potential measures. This group will report on its progress to Government in later this year. In addition, work is under way to establish the zero-emission vehicles Ireland office as a matter of priority. This office will co-ordinate the implementation of existing and future electric vehicle measures and infrastructure. Our objective is to develop and refine cost-effective, targeted policy supports over the coming years.

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