Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senator O'Donnell. If we are not careful, the State will have to pay substantial fines for not meeting our targets in regard to carbon emissions. If we are to face such fines, it would be better to front-load that investment instead. I appreciate that technology is constantly improving and we will be discussing electric vehicles in section 8 in a moment but we need to rapidly increase our supply of charge points and to incentivise the movement from petrol and diesel and carbon fuels in private and public vehicles and public transport vehicles in particular, as well as all other State-owned vehicles such as those of the ESB, the Army and so on. Not every vehicle will be suitable in the short term but it is to be hoped that in 20 years' time we will look back and wonder why we were all driving petrol and diesel cars.