Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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1015. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on a matter regarding the Climate Action Plan 2019 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5464/20]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The 2019 Climate Action Plan sets out clearly for the first time how Ireland can meet it's legally binding EU 2030 emission reduction targets.The Plan, which contains over 180 actions covering a number of sectors including transport, sets a target of 936,000 electric vehicles on the road in Ireland by 2030. Of these, 840,000 will be passenger vehicles, The plan also sets out a range of actions to support this growth which includes introducing legislation to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars from 2030.

There is a wide range of supports already available to support the uptake of electric vehicles including:

- a purchase grant of up to €5,000 for new electric vehicles

- Vehicle Registration Tax relief of up to €5,000 for battery electric vehicles and up to €2,500 for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

- grants of up to €7,000 to support the purchase of electric vehicles in the taxi/hackney/limousine sector;

- Accelerated Capital Allowances for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure;

- a grant of up to €600 to support the installation of a home charger for purchasers of new and second-hand electric vehicles;

- a Public Charge Point Scheme to provide funding to local authorities for the development of on-street public chargers

- Benefit-in-Kind relief for battery electric vehicles;

- low motor tax of €120 for battery electric vehicles; and

- a discount on tolls of 50% for battery electric vehicles and 25% for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (up to a maximum amount of €500 per year with greater reductions off-peak on the M50).

In addition, under the first call for applications from the Climate Action Fund, I approved funding of up to €10 million to support the development of a nationwide, state-of-the-art electric vehicle fast charging network.

There are now almost 19,000 electric vehicles under taxation in Ireland. This represents a quadrupling of the number of electric vehicles that were on Irish roads at the end of 2017. I fully expect the number of electric vehicles to continue to increase as more models become available and the supporting infrastructure continues to be put in place. Vehicle numbers will be boosted further towards the middle of this decade, when the total cost of ownership of electric vehicles will reach parity with their fossil fuel counterparts.