Results 10,801-10,820 of 20,068 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: Just briefly because I have to watch the time.

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will take a break now.

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: Deputy Verona Murphy is next.

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: The next speaker is Deputy Devlin, who is online. He is not responding. Deputy McAuliffe is not with us yet and Deputy Burke is not here either. I have some questions of my own to move along with. On the national retrofitting plan, there is co-funding from the European Union. The figures that I have seen show that this co-funding is quite small. It is in the thousands. Is that...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: What was the percentage?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: As a State, have we been successful in drawing down the full amount?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: That is good to hear. I will move back to the issue of electric vehicles. The target is to have almost 1 million such vehicles by 2030. We currently have 55,000 totally electric plug-in vehicles, as opposed to hybrid vehicles. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: I will keep this concise. The figures I have seen show that more than 13,000 such vehicles were bought last year. To ramp this up to 945,000, close to 1 million, by 2030 we would need an average of 130,000 per year or, if starting at our current pace, to scale up to 170,000 or 180,000 in the second half of this decade. The average number of cars sold in a year veers between 90,000 and...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: To be brief, is it realistic to get that point?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: Total car sales are circa 100,000.

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will have to get closer to 200,000 in the second half of the decade. How realistic is that? Are we expecting the number of new cars bought every year to double?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: That is fine. I follow that. The problem is, even if 100% of cars being bought are electric, that will be insufficient at the current rate at which new cars are purchased. Cars are also going to become more expensive, disposable income is going to drop this year and many people will be facing greater financial pressure for the next couple of years. The first thing people do in such...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: It is welcome that it is ramping up but the point I am trying to make is that, even if everyone who wants to change their car goes out and buys an electric car, unless the current number of new cars sold each year increases dramatically, which is unlikely given what is happening and given increased availability of public transport and decreased reliance on the private car, one would have to...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: Was there a cap before then?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: I was looking at the figures for last year and grants were paid out for 1,467 BMW vehicles, 44 Jaguar vehicles, 439 Mercedes-Benz vehicles and 315 Land Rover vehicles. Payments were made in respect of 174 top-of-the-range Land Rover Evoque vehicles. I welcome the fact that there is a cap on it, but I would argue that the cap is too high. The point I make is that the people who purchased...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: A lot of the vehicles on the list are SUVs that will never be off the road because they were purchased in the Dublin area. The other figures I got relate to where cars were bought. The latest figure I received for the total number of electric cars in County Laois, for example, is 457 and there were 349 in County Offaly. In Dublin there were 21,519. If we look at the figures for cars...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: I accept that. There is a problem here and now and for the coming years for many people in those areas or people who are living in Dublin and have to travel to Kildare to work. This is not exclusive to the midlands. People in Dublin who have to travel out of Dublin for work are affected. Workers on the median to average wage who are not in a position to buy an electric vehicle, who do not...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: I understand that the SEAI does not set the policy, but I ask that it keep this matter under review. Obviously, it makes recommendations to Government. I am of the view that the information needs to go back to the Government. I do not expect Mr. Walsh to have the answer for this next question but could he furnish it to the committee later. The number of charging points is outlined in...

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: When doing that, can the SEAI let us know what local authorities have applied for these grants? We need to ask those that have not applied why they have not done so. Is it a grant of €5,000 for each local authority?

Public Accounts Committee: Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (24 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: It is per charge point. How much is the grant for the home-charging point?