Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 December 2018
43. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the projects supported and the amount spent by his Department to date under the available €5.5 million carbon reduction programme; the progress being made on trials for alternative low-emission buses which are due to conclude in early 2019 and which will replace diesel only buses from July 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51994/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware, the Carbon Reduction Programme in my Department was allocated €5.5m in Budget 2018 to support measures which work towards decarbonising the transport sector. Funding is sourced from within this allocation for the Green Public Transport Fund to support the uptake of low carbon, energy efficient technologies within the public transport sector.
Following recommendations made by the Low-Emission Vehicle Taskforce ahead of Budget 2018, I launched two financial incentives this year to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles.
- The Electric Small Public Service Vehicle (SPSV) Scheme offers a grant of up to €7,000 or €3,500 towards a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) respectively for vehicles in the taxi, hackney or limousine sector. €500,000 was made available for this scheme in 2018, and as of 4 December 2018, over €250,000 has been drawn down.
- Under the Electric Vehicle Toll Incentive Scheme , battery and plug-in hybrid vehicles qualify for 50% and 25% toll reductions respectively up to a maximum €500 annual threshold for private vehicles and €1,000 for commercial vehicles. €500,000 was also made available for this initiative in 2018. Between July and the end of October €166,000 was drawn down under this Scheme.
The alternatively fuelled bus trials referred to by the Deputy began this week, with support from multiple agencies including the National Transport Authority, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. The first bus undergoing trial is a diesel-electric hybrid bus. There are a broad range of fuels and technologies under consideration and scheduled for testing over the coming months, including electric, hydrogen, compressed natural gas/biogas and two diesel buses which have been retrofitted to Euro VI-class standard. I expect the trials will conclude in April 2019, results of which will further inform purchasing decisions in line with our commitment in the National Development Plan that no new diesel-only buses will be acquired after July 2019 for the urban public bus fleets. To date, over €120,000 has been spent on the bus trials.
Finally, funding is also being allocated to researching new and innovative mitigation measures. My Department is co-funding three research projects (two with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and one with the Environmental Protection Agency) examining subjects such as behavioural change and the decarbonisation of the freight sector. The Department expects to spend over €110,000 on this research by the end of this year.
Some projects did not generate the expected overheads in 2018; however, carried over expenses will be incurred in 2019 for projects including: the purchase of a limited number of alternatively fuelled buses for pilot schemes; expenses related to the Low Emission Bus Trial which commenced this week; and November and December invoices for the EV reduced tolling regime.
