Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

10. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an update on the work of the unit within his Department that was established last year to actively engage with shared mobility operators and partnerships, local authorities, and the National Transport Authority to develop and guide policy around shared mobility and promote the use of shared mobility nationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28620/24]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

This question may provide a response to Deputy Brendan Smith's question as well. I would like to hear about the plans for shared mobility. There are 3 million vehicles on our roads representing 60 million tonnes of embedded carbon. They use 12 million tonnes of carbon every year. Shared mobility is the greatest opportunity for carbon emission abatement at a very low cost.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Deputy Bruton. Both the national sustainable mobility policy and the two most recent climate action plans contain several actions around supporting and expanding the range of shared mobility options in Ireland. As the Deputy noted, one of those actions was to establish a new shared mobility unit within my Department. The purpose of that unit is to engage with key stakeholders and to promote the use of shared mobility nationally by bringing coherence to policy in this area. I am pleased to convey to the Deputy that the unit has made good progress in the past year.

Since its establishment there have been regular engagements with shared mobility operators and partnerships. As the Deputy will be aware, the private shared mobility market has expanded considerably in recent years, with private bike-sharing schemes now available in many towns throughout the country, along with car-sharing schemes. This includes a sustainable mobility policy pathfinder projects, to expand the use of shared e-bikes in Sligo, which provides a valuable example of the potential for sharing mobility services to provide a viable alternative for travel by private car.

Engagement with sustainability mobility providers has been an important part of the unit's work and a critical input into the new national policy statement on shared mobility hubs, which is under development as per a related action under the 2024 climate action plan.

To help to inform this new policy a public consultation process was held between March and May this year. An issues paper was also prepared to help to elicit views. Close to 100 submissions were received, which is a good result. These submissions, along with the targeted stakeholder engagement that is planned over the coming months, will help to inform overall direction on shared mobility and the national policy statement.

Along with the above, the unit has worked closely with the National Transport Authority to consider suitable options for fulfilling all of the shared mobility actions and ambitions in a cohesive way. Key considerations include the need for appropriate regulation to ensure the delivery of high-quality services, addressing logistical challenges such as facilitating the use of shared mobility modes across local authority boundaries and the establishment of a sustainable model of shared mobility service provision in both cities and towns.

The unit is also working with the NTA to progress the delivery of the initial network of mobility hubs on a pilot basis. While still at an early stage, it is hoped that the project will help to inform a future operating model for mobility hubs and a national roll-out of such services, particularly in large urban centres.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

In advance of this work being concluded, and to coincide with the making of regulations and recent launch of e-scooters as a legal mode for use on Irish roads, the unit also recently prepared a comprehensive advice note for local authorities on the issue of shared micromobility services, thus helping to support and promote the use of shared mobility nationally.

I thank the Deputy for the question and I hope he is reassured by this update.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I suggest the Minister needs to put a bomb under that unit. It has far too narrow a conception of what shared mobility might offer, by confining itself to these commercial operators. The truth is that 95% of our vehicles lie idle, 95% of the time they are idle, 90% of journeys are single occupant and in a world of modern app technology, surely we can start to exploit that opportunity.

I also put it to the Minister that, in a modern multi-storey residential block it costs €50,000 to put in a car parking space. It would be far better to take out ten car parking spaces in such a unit and provide ten shared electric vehicles. That would be a win-win-win. We need to think more radically than this unit's work programme would suggest.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I agree with the Deputy’s sense of frustration and with his sense of vision and opportunity here. I will commend my Department to accelerate the various different measures we need to make, and not just my Department but others as well. The underlying reasoning behind what the Deputy says, namely, economic gain and savings for householders, as well as improved emissions, is very real.

Private car-sharing operators have a role and they are significantly expanding. There are now a number of different operators such as GoCar, YUKÕ, Enterprise Car Club, Driveyou, Hertz, in Dublin. For example, GoCar has something like 1,000 vehicles available to book. It is expanding and growing but not at the speed and scale that I believe, and the Deputy believes, is possible. Perhaps the key project that would really allow that to expand is the introduction of some 200 mobility hubs that we are looking at, where there would be both shared bikes and shared cars. An example was built in Finglas three years ago. I have been frustrated that it has taken quite some time to take that first prototype example and look to see it expand. We have climate funding available to support that but we still have further work to do in the business case to pick the locations and devise the exact model for delivery. That will come later this year and there will be funding. We have allocated up to €40 million to help that to be rolled out. That could be a game changer in the scale and vision that the Deputy sees and talks about.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I listened to the debate with Deputy Brendan Smith. If we had a mobility hub in rural Cavan where drivers, not linked to the ownership of a particular car but availing of the facilities in the hub, could offer such services to those who wanted them, would we not have a very cheap and effective win-win for Deputy Brendan Smith's suggestion? Is it not the case that the mobility hub in Finglas has been a disaster? It is in the wrong place, it is not attracting the use it could, it needs to be located somewhere there is a genuine nub of people looking to make journeys, not on the outskirts where it is located. I ask the Minister to accelerate the development of these mobility hubs and think outside of the narrow conception. I believe Deputy Smith's problem could be addressed with such an approach, with the local authority and community organisations being at the heart of such a mobility hub.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I agree with Deputy Bruton. The underlying benefit of shared car use and ownership is, as he says, most cars are parked 95% the time and if that cost can be shared, it significantly reduces the cost to the householder, in urban and rural areas. There is a particular problem in urban areas, as the Deputy will know, where we will not be as easily able to deploy electric vehicles with charging infrastructure at home, which is a real advantage. We are right to focus on some of those areas also, so that they have access to sustainable transport solutions. This should and can be deployed right across the country. However, we need to scale it up. That model in Finglas, as I said, there have been teething problems. There will always be problems when starting something new and different. We learn from that and devise and develop further. One of the officials who was involved in that was brought into our Department because he had real expertise in terms of how this might work. It is complicated, particularly providing the charging infrastructure. That is an issue that has to be right but we will be identifying some 200 locations, municipal, public, car-sharing companies being brought in, and that project could be the game changer. It will be a pathfinder project. Once we learn from that, we can deploy more widely elsewhere.