Geraldine Herbert

Then if you want, and there's loads of choice there, tax people if they make the wrong, what the government consider the wrong options, but are wrong choices.

But at the moment, you need to give them options.

So I don't see that working.

I think, look, if the logic behind it is that rural households are more car dependent and fewer alternatives, then we should be giving them more alternatives.

I think 10 million could be much better spent improving the bus service that is in rural Ireland, improving the reliability of it.

And I think that's where the money should be spent.

And I think it's very simplistic to assume that somebody who drives a car that's 13 year old or older

has the finance to actually then buy a new car.

I mean, essentially what's been given, Matt, is 5,000.

There's already a 3,500 euro grant.

So this is just added on top of it.

It's been packaged as 8,500, but it's actually 5,000.

So do these people actually want to take on this sort of burden of finance at a time when energy costs are going through the roof and the cost of living is increasing?

How much would a new EV cost?

Well, if you look at the most popular EVs at the moment, if you look at the five most popular, you're looking at a price range of anywhere between about thirty three to forty thousand.

Now, that's more or less on a par with petrol and diesel cars as well.

And that's like they're expensive.

All new cars are expensive.

And the new car market is only a fraction of the actual cars that are sold.

So why we would target people on lower incomes and you're not driving a 13 year old car, you know, out of choice, you're usually on because you have no other means to pay for it.