The Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, is welcome to the House.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
School Accommodation
I raise this matter this morning after meeting Cara McAdam, who is a science teacher in De La Salle College, Dundalk, a couple of weeks ago. She showed me the science laboratory and the rest of the college. There are four laboratories, one of which is in a new part of the building. Two are in a building dating from 1978 while one of the laboratories was built in 1998. I am sure the Minister of State can agree that using science laboratories built in the 1970s and the late 1990s in 2023 is not acceptable.
There have been no upgrades to the laboratories during that time. They are very dated and in many regards are not fit for purpose. There is no safe working gas supply and no use of a fume cupboard in the chemistry laboratory. The laboratory built in 1998 is in a building with a chronic damp and mould problem. There is frequent flooding and infestations. There are about 700 pupils in the school, nearly all of whom are taking science. I saw for myself that the fume cupboard in the 1998 laboratory is positioned on the wall leading into the centre of the building, which is a violation of all health and safety standards. Fume cupboards should be on the edge of a building so that if there is an explosion, it goes outside rather than into the building. This clear violation of health and safety standards goes back to 1998.
The science laboratories are hugely outdated. We are encouraging many students at second level to look towards careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, and science is a really important part of that. The students taking science in De La Salle College, Dundalk, are simply not getting bang for their buck. They are not getting the full proper science experience because their teachers are unable to teach them in adequate classrooms.
I accept that this school will have to apply for the summer works scheme, particularly in category 5, which is funding for science laboratories, and I know this process has started. Perhaps the Minister of State will be able to give me a bit more clarity on when that summer works scheme will open, when the category 5 scheme will open and when applications can be submitted.
This is a really good example of trying to modernise our classrooms across the country. It is really not fair that students are trying to learn in classrooms that are more than 40 years old. It is not fair that teachers trying to bring their students along and teach them in an important manner have to work in these conditions.
My reason for raising this matter on the floor of the House is because in 2023, students and teachers should not be operating out of classrooms that are 40 years old. Teachers should not have to operate in such a situation and the nearly 700 students taking science in De La Salle College, Dundalk, should not have to sit in classrooms with damp and mould infestations with equipment that does not work and where health and safety requirements are not met.
I accept that the funding measures will be through category 5, so I am very keen to hear a bit more detail about that, including how the school will be able to apply for that funding and how we can get these four science laboratories upgraded as quickly as possible.
I thank Senator McGahon for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to clarify the current position in relation to De La Salle College, Dundalk, County Louth, on behalf of Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. De La Salle College is an all-boys school under the patronage of the Le Chéile Schools Trust. The enrolment at the school in September 2022 was 704 pupils.
With regard to meeting the current and future accommodation needs of De La Salle College, the school was approved funding under the Department of Education's additional school accommodation scheme in 2018. This project will deliver two mainstream classrooms, a design and communications graphics room and two classrooms for students with special education needs. This project has been devolved to the school authority for delivery and is currently at stage 2A.
In September 2022 the Department also approved interim accommodation to facilitate the opening of a class for students with special educational needs from September 2023. A project to deliver this modular accommodation is under way in cognisance of the importance of urgently facilitating the new special class at the school. The purpose of the additional school accommodation scheme is to ensure essential teaching spaces and accommodation for students with special educational needs are available to cater for pupils enrolled each year where the need cannot be met by the school's existing accommodation. At post-primary level, this situation generally arises to cater for significantly increasing enrolments due to demographic pressures or to provide accommodation for special classes and where all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for teaching purposes.
Under Project Ireland 2040, the education sector will receive a total of approximately €4.4 billion capital investment over the period 2021 to 2025. There will be a rolling five-year funding envelope which will be updated annually for the period 2026 to 2030 within the Government's overall national development plan, NDP, funding envelope of €136 billion in Exchequer capital that will facilitate building a modern and sustainable school infrastructure. This significant investment allows us to move forward with certainty on our ambitious plans and deliver high-quality building projects, with a real focus on sustainability, for school communities throughout Ireland. The strengthened focus on the refurbishment of existing school stock will have different strands and will include a deep energy retrofit programme in support of our 2030 and 2050 climate action goals.
I advise the Senator that updates in relation to all school building projects are provided on the Department's website and this is updated regularly.
I thank the Minister of State. As I said, this is just the start of the process of this campaign and the goal of getting these science laboratories updated. As the Minister of State has acknowledged and as I have pointed out, the way we will do this is through the summer works scheme through category 5, which is funding for science laboratories. Obviously, there will be a number of schools trying to apply for that. I would hope that, given the really severe condition of these school laboratories, which have not been updated since the 1970s and 1998, when the application does come from the De La Salle secondary school in Dundalk, the Minister and the Department would be able to look upon it favourably and in the context of the situation that nearly all of the 700 students in the school are taking science and they need the full science experience that students get at other schools in Dundalk.
I thank the Senator for giving the opportunity to outline to the House the position in relation to De La Salle College in Dundalk. The refurbishment of science laboratories as proposed by De La Salle College is appropriate to the Department of Education's summer works scheme. The summer works scheme is the funding mechanism for dealing with the more significant improvement works that are usually carried out during school holiday periods to minimise disruption to the operation of schools. The summer works scheme operates on a multi-annual basis, and at this stage it is envisaged the summer works scheme will next be opened for new applications later in 2023 for the delivery of projects on a phased basis from 2024 onwards. Schools will be notified of the details of the summer works scheme in due course and it will be open to the school to make an application at that time.
Medicinal Products
The next Commencement matter is an issue I too as a Member have raised on a number of occasions on the floor of the Seanad and I commend the Senator on raising it today.
I thank the Cathaoirleach. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber today. As the Cathaoirleach has said, a number of Members have raised this issue, and Senator Buttimer has indeed been at the forefront on the issues around cystic fibrosis.
I am here for an update from the Minister of State. He will be aware that Cystic Fibrosis Ireland had called for a health technology assessment to be completed by the end of January. We are now into February. I submitted this Commencement matter at the end of January to get an update. There are 35 children and their families awaiting news. They had been denied the drug Kaftrio. I have been contacted by a former senior psychologist at the adult unit for cystic fibrosis in St. Vincent's University Hospital. She outlined to me the real psychological challenges for people when they are dealing with a long-term condition such as cystic fibrosis. We in Ireland have a particular propensity for cystic fibrosis. There is no cure and people are reliant on these drugs. It is immoral not to ensure every person who needs the drug can get access to it. I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's response. I would like to hear that the HSE had been in contact with the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and some confirmation that the health technology assessment is either completed or nearing completion. The families were disappointed to hear it needed to go through this step, albeit a step in the right direction.
I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health. I thank Senator O'Reilly for raising this issue. Cystic fibrosis is a devastating disease for patients and their families. With Ireland having one of highest per capita rates of cystic fibrosis in the world, many of us will have been affected by the sadness it can cause for families. Access to effective treatments offers hope to those suffering from this disease, and the Minister aims to make this possible for every patient who needs it.
Kaftrio has been a life-changing drug for cystic fibrosis sufferers. Access to drugs like this was what we expected when the HSE signed its agreement with the drug's manufacturer, Vertex, in 2017. That deal stipulated that our patients would have access to Vertex's whole portfolio of cystic fibrosis drugs for a capped yearly cost. We made a ten-year commitment which has already seen us pay hundreds of millions of euro to Vertex. We entered this agreement in good faith, expecting that as new licences were approved for their medicines, the HSE would receive access at no additional cost. This had been the case previously when new indications were licensed. The agreement was amended in 2019 and 2020 to include these patient groups at no additional cost. However, for this particular subtype affecting a small group of children, Vertex is requesting additional funds to provide access. The HSE has statutory responsibility for the community drug schemes. It has structures in place to ensure our health services are available to provide the right care sustainably.
Given the substantial budgetary impact of the additional funds sought by Vertex, it must complete the pricing and reimbursement process that is required in respect of all other medicines. This requires the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, NCPE to complete a health technology assessment, HTA, of Kaftrio for this patient group. Until recently, Vertex did not engage with this process. Following extensive efforts from the HSE's corporate pharmaceutical unit, CPU, Vertex supplied its HTA dossier to the NCPE in January 2023. The NCPE has agreed to treat this HTA as a priority. The Minister is pushing to have the HTA completed as soon as possible. In the meantime, the HSE's CPU continues its open dialogue with Vertex and met its representatives on a couple of occasions in January.
The Government is committed to providing access to innovative new medicines for Irish patients. Budgets 2021 and 2022 saw €80 million of funding dedicated to new medicines and 112 new medicines, or expanded uses of existing medicines, 34 of which were for the treatment of rare diseases, were provided since 2021.
I thank Cystic Fibrosis Ireland for its efforts in bringing attention to this situation. It provided valuable insight to the Minister during the meeting late last year. The voices of the parents of these children have also been heard and the Minister fully appreciates their concern. He and I are hopeful that this matter can be brought to a satisfactory conclusion for everyone involved.
I will not get into a long discussion on the stranglehold that pharma companies have when it comes to providing treatment. As the Minister of State indicated, a huge amount of money was given to Vertex. I am disappointed that we have no update on the HTA. I ask the Minister of State to go back to the Minister and ask him to, as soon as possible, give me a date by which he thinks it will be completed. Cystic Fibrosis Ireland wanted this done by the end of January.
We have a new group in Leinster House of Senators and Deputies who are interested in rare diseases. It can be incredibly difficult to advocate for yourself when you have a rare illness. It is really important that we have this group in order that we can advocated more effectively on people's behalf.
We fully appreciate the severity of cystic fibrosis and acknowledge the fears and frustrations of the families affected by this situation. The HSE has statutory responsibility for medicine pricing and reimbursement decisions as given to it in the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013. This requires that the HSE ensures that medicines are reimbursed in a cost-effective manner. The HSE is making every effort to fulfil its responsibility. Following extensive efforts by the HSE's corporate pharmaceutical unit we are now seeing progress with this situation. The Minister, the clinical community and, most importantly, the families affected are all eager to see progress towards making this drug available to these children. I will certainly convey the Senator's concerns and comments to the Minister directly.
Medicinal Products
l raise an issue in respect of which Senator Ahearn campaigned all through last year in order to make sure that the product in question was on the funding list. It is now on the funding list but it may as well not be. The provision is completely impotent. I refer to the alleged reimbursement for Cariban. This product is for women who suffer severe illness and vomiting during pregnancy. The condition for its reimbursement under the scheme is that it must be prescribed by a consultant. However, the reimbursement is subject to the drug payment scheme meaning that the person for whom it is prescribed must pay the first €80. A woman may only see a consultant when she is well advanced in the first trimester, if not at the very end going into the second trimester, so she has to fund the medicine for the first 12 weeks. Even when a person qualifies for the scheme, there is no retrospective reimbursement.
When this matter was raised in the Dáil, the response was from the Minister for Health - I note that the Minister of State here is not in that Department, which is a bit of a disappointment but which is no reflection on him personally - was to implore the drug companies to apply for the licence. However, the drug companies and practitioners are operating lawfully because we have an exempt medicinal product list. The point of that is that it is not necessary to apply for a licence or authorisation but if a consultant underwrites it, and, in other words, takes the risk away from the State in the prescribing of this matter, then where the consultant takes on the risk and carries the legal burden then it will be all right.
Rather than Ministers standing up and calling on the drug companies to apply for this and ensure that it is on the list, it would be better to reappraise the exempt list and assess whether it is suitable. Women can be sick all the time for the duration of the nine months of their pregnancies. The State purports to provide them with financial support but, in actual fact, it does not do so; it provides them with the very minimum. In that context, they might get a box and a half of Cariban capsules every four weeks.
I will not rehearse what Senator Seery Kearney said, but I echo both every single word and the passion with which she spoke. I have been raising this matter since April 2021. In other words, for almost two years. It seems that either no one is listening or that people are moving to some degree but are doing so while kicking and screaming. We are getting to the point where Hyperemesis Ireland is incredibly frustrated. Individuals such as Sabrina Hill have to go on Instagram and talk bravely about their experiences of going through this debilitating condition. It seems as though no one in a position of power cares. We talk about how healthcare, particularly maternity care, for women is free. It is not free for all women. It is not free for women who go through this condition, and that is not fair. They look at countries such as Spain, where Cariban is incredibly cheap to buy, or the UK, where it is free to get. Cariban is neither cheap nor free in Ireland. The most frustrating thing is that a consultant has to sign off on it. I know about this as a result of my wife's experience. We had a baby just before Christmas. If you go through the public system, as we did, you do not see a consultant until well into the second trimester. As as result, people who cannot afford this drug cannot see a consultant early in their pregnancy would have to pay for the drug themselves for the first 12 to 14 weeks. The cost is extraordinary. What is it with the Department of Health that it seems to be putting obstacles in the way of women right across the country in the context of their receiving the right and proper healthcare they deserve when they go through pregnancy?
I am here on behalf of the Minister for Health. I thank Senators Seery Kearney and Ahearn for raising this matter and appreciate that it will be a concern for many women in Ireland.
Hyperemesis gravidarum is a severe form of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy that affects some women and that must be diagnosed and treated appropriately. The Government is keen to ensure that anyone experiencing this condition receives the support they need. As part of budget 2023, the Minister for Health announced €32.2 million in funding for women's health this year. That includes dedicated funding for Cariban, a medicine used to treat hyperemesis gravidarum. As of January, this medicine is now available to those women who need it.
Unfortunately, reaching this point has not been straightforward. Under the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, only medicines that are licensed and have marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency or Health Products Regulatory Authority can be added to the HSE's formal reimbursement list. Cariban is not licensed and therefore cannot be added to the reimbursement list. It is instead classed as an exempt medicinal product. There are three medicines containing doxylamine or pyridoxine that are licensed in Ireland.
These are listed in the reply. Two of them are gastro-resistant tablets and one is modified-release hard capsules. To date, the market authorisation holder of Xonvea has not progressed the pricing and reimbursement application further with the HSE. The market authorisation holders for Exeltis and Navalem have not submitted pricing and reimbursement applications to the HSE. Therefore, to address the unmet needs of patients with hyperemesis gravidarum, the HSE's medicines management programme was asked to review the evidence available on the unlicensed exempt medicinal product Cariban, and to make a recommendation on the appropriateness and feasibility of an exceptional patient-specific process for access to the product.
Following the recommendations of the medicines management programme, an exceptional arrangement has been put in place to support the reimbursement of Cariban. Cariban is now available under the community drug schemes on an individual patient basis for the treatment of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy where consultant obstetrician-initiated. While the initial prescription for Cariban must be issued by a consultant, further prescriptions can be issued by the patient's GP. Consultant initiation is the case for all unlicensed exempt medicinal products under the community drugs schemes. The HSE advise that where a drug is not licensed, the expertise of a specialist in the relevant field is necessary to ensure safe usage. However, if a licensed product was approved for reimbursement this arrangement could then be reviewed or revised. The HSE therefore encourages clinicians, along with the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the National Clinical Programme for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and other healthcare professionals to encourage the market authorisation holders of the available licensed medicinal products to progress with the formal pricing and reimbursement process in Ireland.
I thank the Minister of State. With due respect, putting the onus on drug companies to make the application when they are part of a for-profit industry - and let us be very clear about what it is - is absolutely farcical. It is not a patient-led response nor is it a citizens-of-the-Republic-led response. The fact is that what we are about is deferring the risk and the legal burden onto a practitioner or a consultant. The person who pays the cost in the middle of that is a woman who either does not get her prescription, does not get her funding, or may in fact be hospitalised at a cost to the State. The cost includes the hospitalisation, the woman's health, the bed that is unnecessarily taken up, and a woman on a drip in a hospital, as some of the patients who need treatment have told me. To be quite honest, the whole arrangement of an exempt list and our funding relationship with that needs to be reviewed and needs to be patient-centred.
I thank the Minister of State for the response, but this is the response I would have received a year ago. There are women listening to the debate today to hear what answer is going to be given from the Department. Basically, the response today is a load of rubbish. How many Ministers are there in the Department of Health? People will ask me today why no Minister from the Department of Health was here. Of course, it is no reflection on the Minister of State, Deputy Collins. He is a great Minister of State in his Department. How many Ministers do we need in the Department of Health for one of them to come here and answer a question on why women cannot receive the same treatment? What they tell me is that if this was a men's condition, one could be damned sure that the issue would be resolved. Why can women not receive the same treatment and respect, at least in this Chamber, for Ministers from the Department of Health to come here and answer genuine questions from people who are actually in Government with them?
On behalf of the Minister for Health, I thank the Senators for raising this important matter today. Progressing women's health is a priority for this Government. A strong commitment to promoting women's health was made in the programme for Government. We are fully committed to the development and improvement of women's health services and to working with women and girls to improve their health across the whole lifecycle. The funding of €32.2 million for the women's health budget in 2023 will help continue making progress in the area for the coming year. This includes the dedicated funding for Cariban. The Minister for Health is pleased that this treatment is now available to those women who need it, and hopes it will make a meaningful difference to their well-being.
The Minister understands the frustration that exists around the fact that the medicine is only accessible via a consultant prescription in the first instance. This is because Cariban is an unlicensed exempt medicinal product, and therefore the expertise of a specialist in the field is necessary to ensure safe usage. The HSE's managed access protocols for Cariban lay out appropriate clinical protocols that must be followed to ensure safe usage. I will relay and reflect the concerns of both Senators to all of the Ministers in the Department of Health.
With respect, I am getting texts from a woman who has been waiting for over a month for the consultant to sign that form so that she can then get to a place where she will get some small intervention. The system just is not working and it is not all right. If one is in the public system, one really is at the mercy of the State.
Tax Code
I congratulate the Minister of State on her elevation to office.
In 2019, the Houses of the Oireachtas passed the usual Finance Act, allowing for regulations of taxation, stamp duties and duties relating to excise. Included in the Bill was section 6, on benefit-in-kind emissions-based calculations, which gave effect to a measure included in that year's budget relating to benefit-in-kind tax on employers providing vehicles. The effect of the measure is as follows. From 1 January 2023, a new charging regime for employer-provided cars will take effect, and will be based on kilometres travelled with the CO2 emissions levels of the car. Also, the rate of benefit-in-kind tax on employer-provided vans will increase from 5% to 8% of the original market value of the van from 1 January 2023.
With a commencement date of four years off, I am sure it seemed a long way down the road, but here we are now and the tax hike signed into law prior to Covid is hitting people all over the country during a period of general global inflation and the Irish cost-of-living crisis. Average employees will see a reduction in their pay packet of approximately €300 per month, according to the chief executive of the Kildare Chamber of Commerce. One company driver, Ivan O'Sullivan, a medical representative who covers Northern Ireland and parts of Dublin and Leinster, drives hundreds of kilometres every day. He told RTÉ that his benefit-in-kind has trebled. "It is a huge hit for me financially. It is hundreds of euros a month, thousands a year", he said. Indeed, for many people who use a company car in lieu of a private vehicle, this four-year-old tax hike will all but wipe out any advantages received in this year's budget.
We have about 150,000 company cars in this country and many of these workers have no choice but to drive them. They have been penalised for not having a private automobile - a state of affairs which any critical-thinking climate advocate would realise is absurd. Of course, the reverse logic when it comes to CO2 reductions does not end there. The formula used to calculate the tax, based on kilometres travelled, results in the benefit-in-kind charge on a work vehicle actually dropping at higher mileage due to the thinking that the greater the distance travelled for business, the more the car benefits the company rather than its employee.
The Vehicle Leasing Association of Ireland has warned that it may be contrary to the climate action plan by making businesses move away from company cars to look at adopting an allowance method whereby employees could drive their own high-polluting second-hand cars rather than avail of the company's comparatively new more energy-efficient models. Vehicle leasing companies are reporting that some workers are seeking to hand back their company cars or buy them out so that they can use them as private cars and claim mileage instead.
While many companies will transition to an electric fleet over time, at the moment, there is a shortage of electric and hybrid vehicles due to supply chain difficulties and electric vehicle, EV, battery technology. The charging infrastructure is not sufficiently advanced to make such vehicles a viable alternative for many workers. It is an absolute disaster between extra fuel costs and all the other costs that are part of everyday life. It is a real blow for anybody who has a company car.
What is the plan? Are we keeping this reverse logic tax hike, which was put in place four years ago when we had no idea of the state we were going to be in? Are we at least going to introduce some measure to cushion the blow for those users of company cars?
I thank Senator Keogan for raising this issue. Of course, she is right. When this was introduced in 2019, it was part of the climate action plan and part of a climate focus on making a transition and bringing the benefit-in-kind, BIK, in line with the other vehicle taxes, namely, vehicle registration tax, VRT, and motor tax which, of course, are carbon-based. The Senator is also correct in identifying that there was a long lead-in time to try to allow for fleet planning. However, just because the Finance Bill said there is a long lead-in time it does not always mean that people have the opportunity to be fully aware of that or fully able to adapt to it, particularly during a pandemic.
The Senator is also right in stating that there was no possible way of foreseeing in 2019 the energy price crisis we have or the inflationary crisis we had post pandemic. The situation is very complex. I genuinely recognise that and that the timing of this, albeit that it was planned three or four years ago, is quite difficult. I will set out some of the rationale behind the decision-making originally.
As the Senator will be aware, and she has supported it on many occasions, Government policy is very firmly focused on the environmental rationale around company car taxation. As I said, the emissions-based approach has already been adopted for VRT and motor tax. The approach is being extended to company cars as per the 2021 climate action plan. A CO2-based BIK for company cars was legislated for three years ago, obviously, with the commencement date of 1 January 2023. From the beginning of this year, the amount taxable as BIK was determined as the car's original market value and the annual business kilometres driven, as highlighted by the Senator. The lead-in time between the legislation and that actually being applied was to send that advance signal to industry to adapt to this new system as typical lease renewal periods are approximately three years.
Until the changes brought in as part of the Finance Act 2019, Ireland's vehicle BIK regime was unusual in that there was no overall CO2 basis to it. This was despite the fact that the latter had been legislated for in 2008 but not implemented.
In some instances, as the Senator said, this new regime will provide for higher BIK rates, for example, with regard to above-average emissions and high-mileage cars. It should be noted, though, that to offset this, the taxable rates remain largely the same in the lower to mid-mileage ranges for the average lower-emission car. In addition, EVs benefit from a preferential rate of BIK, ranging from 9% to 22.5%, depending on mileage. Vehicles that run on fossil fuels are subject to higher BIK rates up to 37.5%. As we are aware, this new structure with CO2-based discounts and surcharges is designed to incentivise employers to provide employees with low-emission cars.
Under the new regime, the number of mileage bands has reduced from five to four. There were some arguments around the mileage bands in the new BIK structure, as though they were incentivising higher mileage to avail of lower rates, leading to higher levels of emissions, which appears to be a contradiction. The rationale behind the mileage bands is that, as the Senator said, the greater the business mileage, the more the car is a benefit to the company rather than to the employee and the more the car depreciates in value, the less of a benefit it is to the employee. Mileage bands also ensure that cars that are more integral to the conduct of business receive preferential tax treatment.
Better value for money for the taxpayer is achieved by curtailing the number of subsidies available and building an environmental rationale directly into the BIK system. That point is accepted across the board. The particular point the Senator raised was about the timing of its introduction at this moment and how that is impacting people having regard to the external circumstances. I understand and have a lot of sympathy for that. However, the purpose and rational was to bring the taxation around company cars into line with our own other taxation measures on a carbon basis and also with those right across Europe, which also have carbon-based BIK ratings.
I thank the Minister of State very much. I appreciate the comprehensive answer. The issue was the lead-in period, however, which began four years ago. It was not on the radar of many companies. I only became aware of it around December when a number of people contacted me to tell me how much they were going to be out of pocket.
Do I have to look at other legislation or other budgetary measures the Government has delayed over a period of time that have serious consequences for individuals, particularly companies and employees within those companies? This has hit the employees quite hard. I am a little disappointed that there are no plans to review this in the context of the forthcoming budget. Is there anything that can be done in the budget to make matters easier? Is this something the Minister of State might look at?
I thank the Senator. I recognise that when something was legislated for in the Finance Act four years ago, it can seem a bit remote. The purpose of it was to enable fleet planning by companies, not by employees. The latter would not perhaps have had the same familiarity with the provisions of the Finance Act as we might have understood their employers to have, particularly when it came to renewing leases. These are conversations that companies that are engaged in ongoing lease renewals should be having with suppliers. There is a disconnect between the employee who is actually paying this now and the fleet planning we might have hoped for and anticipated.
One of the aspects to look at is that budget 2022 extended the preferential BIK treatment for EVs to end in 2025 with a tapering mechanism on the vehicle value threshold. Therefore, the relief is being phased down incrementally from €50,000 in 2022 to €10,000 in 2025. That is to try to encourage early adaptation towards EVs by fleet planners, as opposed to employees, and to try to do that in the most expeditious way possible.
It would be great if the infrastructure was there to support it. I thank the Minister of State.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 10.17 a.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 10.30 a.m.
Sitting suspended at 10.17 a.m. and resumed at 10.30 a.m.