93. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Transport the way he will ensure that the pipeline of road transport projects he plans to fund in 2025 are individually and cumulatively assessed for their impact on the transport sectoral emissions ceiling set under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9528/25]

Sentiment score: 0.05

What will the Minister do to ensure the pipeline of road transport projects he intends to fund in 2025 are individually and cumulatively assessed for their impact on the transport sectoral emissions ceiling set under the climate Act 2021?

Sentiment score: 0.38

It is really important that they are cumulatively assessed and not just on an individual basis. The Government has inherited an overshoot in the transport emissions budget as well as our broader carbon budgets. Due to the climate imperative, the previous Government had a spending ratio of 2:1 for public transport versus roads and invested €1 million a day in active travel infrastructure. Can the Minister commit to sticking to that? If the Government is off course in relation to emissions targets, the Minister is obliged to provide and propose corrective actions. What actions might the Minister take to implement the recommendations of the IFAC and Climate Change Advisory Council today in their joint report? Will he refresh the concept of EV grants, for example and reduce the cost of say, 700,000 new electric vehicles on our roads?

Sentiment score: 0.21

It is encouraging to hear that. To the extent the Minister might be considering refreshing the EV grants, I hope it will be purely for EVs rather than hybrids. The transport sector is wildly off course. We feel there is a need for accelerated and urgent demand management measures and the implementation of ambitious active travel and public transport measures that can bridge the emissions gap by 2030. The Minister said we have reduced emissions, but we are required to reduce them by 20% over the period 2021 to 2025 and by 50% from 2025 to 2030. We would query how the building of additional roads rather than opting for more sustainable measures such as rail and light rail infrastructure is going to help us reach those targets.

Sentiment score: 0.38