Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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71. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to encourage the use of electric vehicles, given the very low take-up of such vehicles by public, commercial and transport interests. [45003/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The Electric Vehicle Grant Scheme supports and incentivises, through grants of up to €5,000, the deployment of electric vehicles in Ireland. These grants are in addition to the Vehicle Registration Tax reliefs of up to €5,000 which apply to electric vehicles. In addition, where technically feasible, customers who qualify for the grant also qualify for a free domestic charge point installed by the ESB.

The extent to which electric vehicles are adopted in the short-to-medium term will depend on a range of factors including, inter alia, the strength of the economy, the overall numbers of new cars being purchased, the cost of purchasing and running electric vehicles compared to fossil fuel comparators, and the number of different electric vehicle models available to purchase. There are signs that these factors are improving. In 2015, 547 new EVs have been supported through the Electric Vehicle Grant Scheme which represents more half of the total of 1,082 supported since the programme began in 2011.

The Electric Vehicle Grant Scheme will remain open into 2016.