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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation

Car sharing and mobility hubs

Summary

Deputy Bruton asked about the new unit to promote sharing platforms and better use of cars. The Minister said ZEVI has launched a recharging strategy that includes mobility car-sharing centres, citing the Finglas model as one to roll out more widely.

As we know, in this city and across the country, 90% of vehicles sit idle in driveways and when they are used, over 90% are used for single-passenger journeys. What are the Minister's plans for the new unit to promote sharing platforms? I know Deputy McAuliffe has a keen interest in this. It is a real opportunity for us to transform the way travel is thought of by people, if we can get the work of this unit moving very swiftly. I would like to hear the Minister's plans.

Comment on this

We launched our recharging station strategy with Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, ZEVI, last week. A critical element of that is new mobility car sharing centres. The reason Deputy McAuliffe is interested is because we have already introduced one in Finglas village, and it provides a model that we need to roll out across our cities in particular and across the country. It is the council providing the land and it is working with the ESB on the grid connection. It is both a charging and a car sharing station for a variety of different car sharing companies, and it also has e-bike charging and e-bike sharing. To my mind, it has huge potential because the benefit is that, as the Deputy said, most cars are parked 95% of the time, so there is a huge economic saving, huge energy efficiency and huge import reduction in terms of the balance of payments, and it provides a very high-quality service. The Government will provide funding for the roll-out of those mobility hubs across our cities as the big boost to car sharing.

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