Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 90: To ask the Minister for Transport if the new buses promised under the Transport 21 plan will be equipped to run on biofuels. [36057/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Responsibility for the procurement of new buses rests with the bus companies concerned and I have no function in the matter.

Transport 21, however, includes funding for a range of sustainable transport initiatives over the period to 2010. The purpose of these initiatives is to facilitate the mainstreaming of sustainability criteria into transport investment decision-making and to make cleaner, more environment-friendly vehicles available, embracing the haulage industry, taxis and, of course, public transport operations. These initiatives contain pilot projects for sustainable buses including: hybrid-electric buses; biofuel buses, 100% biofuel; biofuel buses, 5% biodiesel blend. As in the past, these pilot projects will help uniform future acquisition policy.