James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am open to the idea. I test-drove a hybrid petrol-EV model recently. I drove a Prius for many years before many people did and I found it extremely useful. I live in a rural area in Kildare. The only reason I got rid of it was that it practically fell apart after one election campaign too many. It had a good boot for posters. I can recommend it on that basis.

Moving on to the substance of the amendments, I welcome the Minister's move to introduce a pause on some of the transitional amendments. It is wise of the Minister to do so. It also falls in line with the twin-track policy being pursued by the Government in many of these areas. It is often said that it is good policy not to have a cliff edge on any aspect, be that a fiscal measure, an environmental measure or anything that affects people's daily budgets. Constituents have contacted me about this measure and concerns were expressed about the benefit-in-kind, BIK, cliff edge that was potentially at play, especially the right to 52,000 km mileage. As one constituent, Mr. McAllorum said to me, it was almost as if he was being incentivised to drive further as in order to get the full benefit, recipients had to go further, higher, faster and longer. That was counter-intuitive as people were being encouraged and incentivised financially to drive more miles to get the benefit and that went against the spirit of the legislation if not the letter of it. I welcome that this has been recognised by the Minister and that this amendment is looks to press the pause button on that. It is part of a twin track.

In responding to people such as Mr. McAllorum in my constituency and others like him I say to them that we hear what they are saying, we hear the difficulties on a practical or day-to-day basis, especially at a time when inflation, including fuel inflation and vehicle inflation on new and second-hand cars, is increasing and the cost of motoring is increasing because of the cost of fuel and the cost of living. Not only that, but in parallel, the Government is rolling out charging infrastructure, investing heavily in EV infrastructure, putting in charging points and parking spaces for electric vehicles and making it possible to drive an EV.

A friend of mine bought an electric vehicle last year for commercial purposes. He is a solicitor and is often on the road for court. When his accountant finished with it, he was basically being paid to take up the vehicle. There were so many grants and schemes afforded and granted to him along with the tax relief because he was using it for work purposes that the vehicle cost him very little in net funds. That is a real life example of a commercial user who bought a fully electric vehicle last year. I have been in it. It is a fine vehicle as it happens. People are availing of this and making the move and that makes eminent sense. Real concerns were expressed by real people about the apparent cliff edge nature of it. There was also a dichotomy potentially evident with some people travelling in urban areas, perhaps making trips around the city from meeting to meeting, be it in Dublin, Cork or Galway and other people who were putting in, perhaps not the same miles on the clock but the same hours in the vehicle. Some of them were benefiting from a BIK exemption and some were not. There appeared to be an unfairness in that. I welcome that the Minister has taken these points on board. It makes sense to press the pause button for one year only and in parallel to roll out the infrastructure, policy supports for electric vehicle infrastructure and the wider adoption of them and to stay core to that policy initiative, which, let us be honest, was introduced in 2008 in an earlier Finance Bill but never commenced. This is not new. It should not be new to anyone in this House. In fairness, I do not think that Members do, but anyone who does not realise that we have to get green, is perhaps a bit green, dare I say - green behind the ears perhaps. This is where we are going. This is where the world is going and we need to get on board. I welcome the pause being applied for all the reasons I have outlined.

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