No Seriously, WHAT THE FRAK!!

I have finally discovered what the issue is with the arrival of my new car - Pat Rabbitte! Our new Minister for Communications, Energy and Transport has apparently dropped the ball - and he's making me see Red!




As part of the rollout of EVs, and in particular BEVs, the Irish Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding stating that they would commit to a large scale project, including the incentivisation of the purchase of such vehicles for qualifying Irish citizens. They chose the mechanism of an SEAI grant for €5,000 for every BEV that was over €20,000. It was on this understanding that Nissan chose Ireland as one of six pilot countries for the launch of the Leaf.

All the other pilot countries have similar incentives and all other pilot countries has lived up to their obligations. But now, our new Minister is delaying in implementing the memorandum. As a result, Nissan are unable to deliver their cars to their waiting (and waiting and waiting) customers. They have had to take the very unusual measure of asking their customers for help. This was an email sent to one of the Nissan dealers about the current situation:

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We need to give you an update on the Grant situation for LEAF.



As we informed you last week, in order for SEAI to start distributing the Grant for LEAF, the new Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, needs to sign the relevant documents to give effect to the grant regulations. His predecessor failed to do so before he left office.



So far the minister has not done so. In spite of repeated assurances to the contrary, the Department and the Minister have still not managed to action this issue. We were informed last night that while this issue is on the Ministers agenda, the department are not prepared to give us a specific date by which the papers will get signed. The expressions being used are shortly and imminent.



Given that we cannot register any cars without this grant we have no alternative at this stage but to advise you that we must delay the delivery of cars to customers for the immediate future. We are taking this decision with the greatest of reluctance but as we learned that the Minister will be leading the Government side in the Moriarty Debate today it is not likely that a signature will be available.



We are assured by SEAI that they will turn this process around very quickly once they get the go ahead from the Ministers office but again, we cannot convert this into a specific delivery date.



We recommend that you contact your customers immediately and advise them of the situation.



Please ensure that our customers are aware of where the delay lies.



This is immensely frustrating given that we collectively as the Nissan Network have delivered all that was asked of us and the two government parties are massively behind schedule

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I have to agree strongly with that last paragraph. This IS immensely frustrating. Our new government is only in a few weeks and it is already jeopardising jobs, our environment and our energy independence. This scheme and the resulting investment in green technologies, to say nothing of the positive effect on our international reputation on environmental matters, is one of the few good things implemented by the last government. It is quite disturbing that this is one of the policies that our new government is delaying, or perhaps, considering reversing.

Location:N Wall Quay,Dublin,Ireland