The government will ban the sale of diesel and petrol cars in Ireland from 2030, the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan has confirmed.
The Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan, made the commitment during his appearance on Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show last night (Tuesday, July 12th, 2022), where he discussed reducing emissions.
He explained to to listeners that the European lawmakers are backing the measure – which is contained in the Programme for Government – with a 2035 deadline for a ban on selling petrol and diesel cars.
He said: “We are doing it because of European legislation, not just Irish legislation. It is another example of where we will make that switch because actually, the new electric cars are better. We want to go faster than the European Union.”
“They are cheaper to run, maintain and have better engines. Overall, they are a better car. However, it cannot all be about changing to electric cars.”
The minister said the scale of the change we will need will require us all to switch mode to public transport and active transport, which is “good” for health and the climate.
“We need to switch to all cars being electric within the next decade-plus. Secondly, we need to reduce the volume of traffic by some 25%, and that is really challenging.”
“A third measure we will do is move to car-sharing because the truth is most people’s cars are parked about 95% of the time. We can save a lot of money in being clever by how we provide transport services.”
Agriculture
During the exchange, the minister told listeners that “we won’t have as many cattle, but we will have a greater income, and that is the sort of choices that I think we need to make”.
“We will have to switch and change Irish agriculture. It will introduce a whole new string of income and diversification, which would see a lower number in the herd, but the critical thing is that it has a higher income to farmers, which is what matters.”
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