2026-04-30

106. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Transport if he is aware of the findings of a research paper (details supplied); if he has engaged with the Minister for Climate; Energy and the Environment to address this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31152/26]

Is the Minister for Transport aware of the findings of a research paper from the school of physics in Trinity College Dublin entitled Why Rural Ireland holds the key to transport decarbonisation? Has he engaged with himself, as the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, on this matter?

I talk to myself every day. It is good having two Departments because you can ask permission from the other Minister. There are good synergies between both though, to be fair. It is a good question. As Minister for transport and for climate, energy and the environment, I am aware of the report in question. I thank Deputies Cronin and Daly for bringing it to my attention. I have also reached out to Professor Brian Caulfield to arrange a meeting to discuss his research. It is very timely. We are firmly committed to achieving a low-carbon economy by 2050. The transport sector will play a pivotal role in that. Fleet electrification is expected to continue to provide the greatest share of emissions abatement in the short to medium term for the transport sector. Rural motorists are often in an advantageous position to make the switch to an electric vehicle, due to the large number of dwellings in rural Ireland which are suitable for home EV charging. Home charging is the primary charging method that most Irish EV owners use as it is convenient and cheaper for the consumer, as well as assisting in the overall management of the grid. According to data provided by TII and the charging point operators, over 3,200 publicly accessible charge points are now available nationwide. We are finalising a data strategy in line with the programme for Government commitment, which will enhance the Department’s ability to monitor infrastructure roll-out, capacity and usage, so we can more accurately assess that data with the ultimate objective of delivering on EU requirements. We are going very well on the EV roll-out, and we have seen a really substantial jump in quarter 1 of this year. We have close to 240,000 EVs now on our roads and we are seeing that increase. I want to be able to deploy more EVs and ensure that people, particularly in rural areas, are assessing them. The data we have from last year shows that there is a good regional split. The need to focus on this has been raised by many Deputies and, indeed, Sinn Féin's transport spokesperson, and we will. I intend to meet Professor Caulfield in the coming weeks to discuss his research.

That is great that the Minister has engaged with this and that he will be meeting Professor Caulfield because the need to decarbonise and move to green energy has never been clearly, especially with the illegal wars in Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon and everywhere. The Minister can tell Michéal Martin that we do know about it. People in rural communities depend on their cars and are feeling this the most. One obvious way to protect them from these price shocks is to make electrical vehicles more accessible. The paper to which I refer suggests that this is not really that straightforward. While the good news is that the uptake of EVs in rural areas has been good, many of the people who are reliant on them are charging them at home. This can cause huge spikes in demand that our grid simply cannot handle. Even if people do want to switch to EVs, the grid infrastructure is just not there and that leaves rural communities stuck for the foreseeable future. What has been done to make sure rural areas have the grid capacity that they need so we can get on with the decarbonisation?

That is a very good question. That is why PR6, the capital investment programme into our grid infrastructure between now and 2030 is so critically important. We will be investing up to €18.9 billion in our grid. It is needed to improve grid resilience, grid capacity and distribution. That will be about adding more renewables to our grid too and storage to be able to deal with curtailment issues too but capacity issues in certain parts of the grid. The capital scheme encompasses about 520 projects right the way across the country. This will give that improvement our grid needs to be able to expand further, allow more people, businesses and homes to access the grid, and to facilitate further EV charging. That work has commenced across those projects and it will be the most critical grid upgrade that has been done since electrification in this country. Projects like the north-south interconnector are encompassing it. That is critically important for grid resilience across the island of Ireland.

I am grateful for that because this is critical. When Russia invaded Ukraine, it should have been a wake-up call for us. We should have accelerated investment in renewables and energy security straight away. We have to accept that geopolitical instability is going to be part of the world - certainly for the next few years - and plan for that. Short-term supports certainly are a help but they do not go far enough. This paper offers solutions. We need long-term solutions, such as investing in the grid, expanding renewable energy, and easing pressure on the system. I encourage the Minister to look at a moratorium on data centres. It comes up all the time at the climate committee that the grid has increased and the first come first served system just does not work in regard to data centre. We do not know how long these conflicts are going to last. We do not know when the next crisis is going to come. We have to make sure that we are prepared. I ask the Minister after his engagement with the professor to write to the climate or transport committee. It would be appreciated.

That is a good idea. I am happy to do that. In relation to renewables and the acceleration of renewables, we need to continue to reduce our dependence on fossil and imported fossil. That is good for climate, our economy and people's pockets. The good news is that we have doubled our wind capacity in a ten-year period. We now have over 8 GW of renewable energy connected to our system. We have about 1.4 GW of solar on rooftops. Solar is growing at a significant rate. In March of this year, 50% of our electricity was generated by renewables. We need to accelerate that further. We are doing that. We are doing that through measures like the Planning and Development Act. Earlier this week I visited Bord na Móna's Derrinlough wind farm, which is one of the largest wind farms in the country. Bord na Móna is generating over 1 GW of renewable energy. It was a fossil-based peat company that has transitioned fully to green energy. In its pipeline of development and planning, it has over 5 GW of further renewable sources. On the offshore renewables, we need to get them into construction this decade. Regarding the horizon, the outlook is positive. I agree with the Deputy that we need to accelerate it. I will write to the transport committee post my meeting with Professor Caulfield.

I appreciate that.