Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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235. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the Environmental Protection Agency's eco-driving training will be delivered; the status of the process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21010/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I am informed that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is co-funding a research project with the EPA entitled "Eco-driving: Trends & Potential Impacts for Irish Heavy Duty Vehicles" on which Trinity College is the lead investigator. The objectives of the project are to evaluate the impacts of eco-driving programmes in the Irish HDV fleet focusing on identifying the best practises, analysing the immediate and long-term impacts of adaptation of eco-driving and developing simulation models to estimate the future policy implications. It is expected that the project will generate guidelines for adaptation and evaluation of eco-driving programs to reduce vehicular emissions from the Irish HDV fleet. The projects final report is due to be complete by mid-2020.

In November, I announced the seven projects that had successfully completed the Assessment Stage of the first Call for Applications under the Climate Action Fund. The seven projects, which includes the 3 Counties Energy Agency CLG project "Driving HGV Efficiently into Brexit", are currently in the Validation Stage which, once completed, will provide more detail in relation to the project outputs and timelines.