Following on from our call to action for government ministers to adopt EVs in the wake of news of a new fleet & security protocol change this year, news has come from Minister of State for Procurement Ossian Smyth, setting out a new framework for purchasing of vehicles for public service.
From 2023, all public service vehicles must be electric according to the new framework. This is a pull-forward date from an initially touted 2025. According to The Irish Times, “Minister of State for Procurement Ossian Smyth developed a new framework for the purchase of EVs for the public service. After a slow start when only 3pc of newly purchased state vehicles were electric in the first quarter of 2021, a ten-fold increase – to 32pc – was achieved within six months.”