Sir, – The reason why there is so much friction around the issue of who can and should pay for electric cars ("Irish electrical vehicle supports benefit the wealthy, study finds", News, March 4) is because the dominant ideology of most local and national government continues to be that of encouraging as many car journeys as possible. In this worldview, replacing cars with those powered by renewable energy is the only game in town, even though evidence and research makes it clear that this won't decarbonise our transport by nearly enough. And this is before we even consider the additional footprint (both in emissions and minerals used in batteries) of manufacturing these additional cars. Car-dependency in rural areas is often baked-in by planning choices made over decades, but moving away from this in urban areas can be achieved quickly and relatively cheaply, and the savings to the State of shifting urban transport to more efficient modes will allow greater flexibility in addressing rural transport, as well as reducing the expense of car ownership from many more urban dwellers. But this will only happen if politicians actively support the allocation of space to other transport, something which most are highly resistant to doing. Until that happens, we'll be left with an inefficient, unreliable, high-emission transport system that, by making the alternatives so poor, takes money away from the people that can least afford it by requiring them to own and run cars. – Yours, etc,
DAVE MATHIESON,
Salthill, Galway.