Motor Fuels Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17 ============================================================ Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City I again thank Deputy Ward for raising this matter, which, as stated, I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport. The transport sector has a significant role to play in Ireland's transition to a low-carbon society and economy as part of the wider European goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Reducing our historical reliance on imported fossil fuels in transport and switching to alternative fuel technologies will be essential in the context of decarbonising the sector. As outlined, the Department of Transport's Renewable Transport Fuel Policy 2025-2027 is one of the most effective and immediate policy levers available to the Government in this regard. That policy ensures an incremental transition to lower carbon-emitting fuels in transport, largely by using existing vehicle technology. HVO is one of several renewable transport fuels contributing to transport decarbonisation in Ireland. Indigenous biofuels and biogas also play a key role in Ireland's decarbonisation. Implementation of the renewable transport fuel policy considers the need to support and develop Irish production of biofuels and biogas. Developing Ireland's domestic biofuel supply potential will have benefits for diversity in securing security of supply. It will also have economic and environmental benefits. It should be noted, particularly in relation to the use of renewable fuels in private cars, that biofuels are also blended with petrol. Increasing the blend of bioethanol in petrol is one of several transport sector measure towards achieving the 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, as set out in the climate action plan. A move to E10 petrol in 2023 is seeing the desired result, with a 9% volume blending of ethanol in petrol in 2024, up from 4.9% volume blending in 2022, as recorded by NORA. Ireland's policy on renewable fuels continues to provide future supply of sustainable advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin. I will take Deputy Ward's specific point back to the Minister. The Deputy's argument was very effective, but I would have thought a direct communication with the Minister and his office on the matter would assist very much in terms of it being considered in a comprehensive way by the Department of Transport. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-17