Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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199. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the amount spent on the electric vehicle taxi grant in 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form. [40439/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the Low Emissions Vehicle Taskforce, which is co-chaired by my Department and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, is considering the measures and options available to Government to accelerate the uptake of low emission vehicles in Ireland.

As part of its programme of work, Working Group 1 of the Taskforce, which is chaired by my Department, considered leadership initiatives and incentivisation opportunities as a means of further stimulating electric vehicle (EV) uptake. Based on the interim recommendations of the Taskforce, I was pleased to secure funding in Budget 2018 to introduce a new toll incentive regime for EVs, as well as an EV grant scheme specifically for the small public service vehicle (SPSV) sector, which involves taxis, hackneys and limousines.

The Electric SPSV Grant Scheme opened to applicants in February this year, and provides purchase reliefs of up to €7,000 for Battery Electric Vehicles and up to €3,500 for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. I have allocated €500,000 from my Department's "Green Public Transport Fund" in support of the initiative.

According to the most recent figures received from the National Transport Authority, by 24 September 2018 24 grants totalling €152,000 had been paid or authorised. Encouragingly, all but one of these SPSV vehicles in receipt of the grant so far are Battery Electric Vehicles, which are fully zero-emission.

A total of 118 applications have been received so far and almost 90% of these have been provisionally offered grant assistance under the Scheme subject to initial suitability tests, therefore I am very hopeful that the uptake of the grant and the advancement of electric vehicles in our SPSV fleet will continue to grow.