Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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593. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of extending the SEAI grant for electric vehicle purchase until 2019 to 2023, respectively. [54078/17]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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594. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated cost of extending the SEAI grant for hybrid vehicle purchase until 2019 to 2023, respectively. [54079/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 593 and 594 together.

The electric vehicle purchase grant, introduced in April 2011, provides grant aid of up to €5,000 towards the purchase of a new Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) or new Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). Other hybrid vehicles do not qualify for support under the scheme.

From the introduction of the Scheme to the end of November 2017, grant support has been provided for the purchase of a total of 2,607 new vehicles to the value of €12.2 million. During the first eleven months of this year, €4.1 million has been provided to support the purchase of 879 new electric vehicles.

The grant scheme will continue into 2018 with 6 million euro allocated in the Department’s budget for this purpose. The scheme will kept under review in relation to funding and grant amounts for future years.

The purchase grant scheme is demand led and it is therefore difficult to predict exactly how many vehicles will be supported in future years. In May this year, the Government approved and published the National Policy Framework on Alternative Fuels Infrastructure for Transport in Ireland 2017 to 2030. This policy framework sets an ambitious target that by 2030 all new cars and vans sold in Ireland will be zero emissions, or zero emissions capable.