Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak to amendment No. 2 and related amendments Nos. 10 to 16, inclusive. Amendment No. 2 relates to infrastructure, pedestrians, cyclists and CCTV.

In case the Minister calls us “climate change deniers” and everything else - we are not - but we cannot put the cart before the horse and that is what the Government has done here. The Government has put the horse, the donkey, the jennet and the whole lot before the cart. We do not have the infrastructure - full stop. While this legislation is well and good, the power points are not available and the battery life is not there. I got a taxi in Dublin last night. It was a hybrid car. They are fine because they keep charging themselves. I do not understand the mechanism exactly, but they recharge when they are at a certain speed and when the petrol is added.

Take a place like Clonmel. I met the famous footballer, Babs Keating - he will not mind me quoting him – at a funeral recently in Ardfinnan. He came from Dublin in his electric car and he greeted all the people who were waiting to go in. He called me over and said that he had a bit of useless information for me. He came down to where he normally charges his car, but the power charger was out of action. He went to Clonmel, where there are two charging points in the car park, but there were three cars at one point and two at the other, so he could not wait as he had to go to the funeral. He was at 20% charge leaving Ardfinnan on his way back to Dublin. I said that he could stop in the motorway service station in Cashel. He said that he could not as the station has different chargers that will not fit the car that he drives. That is like when the mobile phones came out years ago, and they are still the same, with different chargers. Is it a fact that electric vehicle chargers are not universal and that people have to be selective in what car they have and where they can be charged? That surely is madness.

Many of us meet with representatives from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry at the briefing yesterday. They have their issues in trying to keep garages and everything else going but they cannot get the cars. They simply are not available. It is not only electric cars that cannot be got. A taxi driver from the city got in touch with me about three months ago, shortly after the start of the holiday. The battery went in his 2017 BMW car. He did not know what happened. It just stopped dead on the road. So he had to get the AA or whoever it was to tow it away. The battery was gone; just like that. No warning. It would cost him €14,000 for a new battery and €1,000 to fit it. They are exorbitant prices.

Can I ask the Minister a ceist amháin about the ingredients in the batteries?

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