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Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Calls for Government to extend tax saver scheme to more sustainable options
Mobility Partnership Ireland (MPI), which represents businesses such as bike-share company Bleeper, GoCar and Aircoach, has said extending the tax relief would help to take private cars off the road. The current tax saver scheme reduces the cost of using public transport for commuters, but MPI has written to the Department of Transport asking for it to be expanded to other modes of transport, including bike share, e-scooters, car-share and car rental, and taxis. The organisation said this would give commuters greater flexibility, and incentivise more sustainable travel. The proposal is to include a digital travel account in the State's TaxSaver scheme. An employee would be able to assign up to €100 per month tax-free through their salary to this digital travel account. They could then pay for Leap Card top-ups, shared bikes, e-scooters and car shares and taxis. MPI has said the proposal would benefit people living in rural areas, who often miss out on transport options included in the scheme because there are fewer public services available. Hugh Cooney, chair of MPI and founder of bike share company Bleeper, said just 25,000 commuters are using the current tax scheme. He believes the proposal would benefit more people across a greater spread of the country. 'Ireland needs to encourage more commuters onto sustainable transport. The TaxSaver scheme should offer a incentive to achieve this, but only about 25,000 commuters are participating,' Mr Cooney said. 'Unlike the current set-price TaxSaver ticket model, MPI's proposal for a digital sustainable TaxSaver Account would provide a flexible, pay-as-you-go approach covering a much wider range of transport options, benefitting more commuters in more counties.' Last month, the Department of Finance's Tax Strategy Group published papers outlining a list of options to be considered as part of the budgetary process, including the treatment of Vat on bicycles and e-bikes. According to the group, 'a number of representations' were received in relation to reducing the Vat rate for bicycles and e-bikes, to which the standard rate of 23pc currently applies. Reducing the Vat rate to 13.5pc would cost the exchequer €8m, the report said. However, the group said it was not possible for a lower Vat rate to apply to a subset of bikes, such as e-bikes or cargo bikes. It also pointed out that a reduction in the rate might not be passed to the consumer, 'because there is no obligation for a retailer to do so'.
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Times
Is the State about to miss another EV target?
It looks very much as if the Republic is about to miss yet another of its climate change targets. Mobility Partnership Ireland − or MBI, a group of companies which have come together to try to exert more pressure on the Government to hit its sustainable transport targets − has said that far more ambition is needed to ensure that enough electric car charging points are rolled out by the end of this year. MBI − which includes heavy-hitters such as Toyota's Yuko instant rentals service, Freenow, and payments service provider Payzone − has called on Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers to instigate an 'urgent review' of the National Development Plan when it comes to the provision of EV chargers. According to MBI, not only do the latest figures show that Ireland's transport emissions increased in 2023 − the most recent year for which there are precise numbers − but that installations of electric car chargers have fallen well behind not just expectations, but behind what we're legally committed to having. READ MORE Data from the Department for Transport shows that just 700 additional public EV charging points have been added over the past two years, bringing the total to 2,400 in 2024. But, under the EU Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), Ireland should have at least 3,200 public EV charging points in place by the end of this year. As a result, MPI says that it is concerned that the State is on course, not for the first time, to miss its EU targets. Hugh Cooney, chairman of MPI, said: 'With Ireland set to miss its EU targets, a greater level of ambition is needed to accelerate the roll-out of Ireland's EV charging infrastructure. The establishment of a new infrastructure division and taskforce in the Department of Public Expenditure and review of the National Development Plan offer a timely opportunity to craft a coherent, more coordinated, and fully funded approach to developing Ireland's EV charging infrastructure. Transformative change is needed, and this should be reflected in the National Development Plan.' The lack of a truly widespread, and indeed reliable, charging network for electric cars is cited as a major block on their uptake by broader swathes of Irish car buyers. While registrations of new electric cars have risen significantly this year, by 24 per cent so far according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, that rise comes off the back of two very disappointing years in 2023 and 2024, both of which saw significant falls in electric car sales. This EV malaise is being found in the rest of Europe too, and it's why many car manufacturers are rolling back on previous promises to become electric-only by the end of this decade; it's why major Chinese car makers are ramping up the development and sale of plug-in hybrid models instead of fully-electric cars; and it's why both the EU and the UK have recently amended the regulations surrounding the expected levels of electric car sales between now and 2035, allowing hybrids to stay on sale for longer, and deferring fines for not selling a sufficient number of electric cars. While cost and reliability remain significant concerns for electric-shy buyers, some 34 per cent of Irish rural car buyers surveyed by car sales website Carzone said that the lack of a widespread charging network was holding them back from committing to electric power. The Irish Times asked Darren Kinsella, new energy landscapes development manager at Schneider Electric, and recently appointed as the spokesperson for Electric Vehicles Charging Association of Ireland (EVCAI) −which includes the likes of EasyGo, ESB e-Cars, and other EV charging providers − why we're still waiting for an electric charging network that's good enough to convince wavering buyers? 'We'll see a substantial improvement by the end of this year,' Kinsella told The Irish Times. 'Because that's when the chargers supported by the latest round of 'LDV' funds from Zero Emissions Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) are due to be completed. We'll also see 50kW chargers installed at 250 sports clubs this year. But it comes down to education and skills − we will never build all this overnight. In terms of education, it comes back to the mindset of each individual person. The majority of people who own and will own an electric car will do the majority of their charging at home, and most of them will do less than 60km or 80km per day. So why do you need a car that can do 400km, or 500km, or 600km on one charge? It comes down to mindset and perception.' Kinsella also reckons that we are still in the very early days of the development of the EV charging infrastructure, and that there are huge opportunities for employment in the industry. 'We are at the infancy of the infrastructure. 'If you think back to the earliest days of motoring, when you had to get paraffin from chemists to fuel your car − that's almost where we're at. But we have some of the best minds in the world in this country, the likes of ESB Networks and ESB International, are some of the most highly-skilled and highly-credited individuals when it comes to building out an electric infrastructure. 'I have spoken to people at senior levels in ESB, and the research and development, the projects and the pipeline with them is absolutely incredible. Mind-boggling stuff, futuristic stuff. And not just on the e-mobility side, but on the buildings, derivatives, sustainability, efficiency, the amount of work is potentially there in the industry for 80,000 people. For electrical contracting alone, we need 10,000 people just to keep up with this cycle, for the electrical installs and infrastructure.' That does smack somewhat of 'jam tomorrow', however, and given that many promises around EV charging have been broken in the past, it may not be enough to convince sceptical buyers now. According to Fabian Sperka, vehicles policy manager at European eco think tank Transport & Environment: 'Charging is perceived as one of the biggest barriers to people switching to electric vehicles, but the picture is improving fast. Now, governments need to go beyond the strict requirements of the EU targets if they are to convince more drivers. More capacity needs to be installed where the actual traffic is, and payments should be made simpler. There also needs to be a clamp-down on broken chargers.'
