Editorial: Stormont MLAs who charge their electric cars for free should not profit from mileage allowances

Electric cars have been on the rise around much of the world including China, although not so much here.

​There is in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK still an attachment to petrol and diesel or hybrid models of vehicles. Even so, the oil crisis caused by the Iran war might yet accelerate the sales of electric cars.

There are significant problems with electric cars including the range they can travel before being recharged and the reliability of batteries and indeed the commodities needed to make such parts. China is ahead in the electric race even though the entrepreneurial spirit of America has been central to the new technology, via pioneers such as the eccentric tycoon Elon Musk.

It is very good to see the number of electric charging points for cars increasing across Northern Ireland – such transport will never be popular until charging is made easy. It is entirely appropriate for Stormont to have charging points that are made available to the politicians who run our society.

While the Labour government was wrong to bring forward the date at which diesel and petrol car sales will be banned to a ridiculously early 2030, it is right for the state to help the emergence of electric vehicles. Electro technology including solar panels, which are ever more powerful, will make the world a cleaner place, even though oil and gas will be essential for decades to come (and should be drilled for in the North Sea).

While Stormont is right to provide charging for cars for MLAs, and indeed to increase such provision over time, it would be quite wrong to let such politicians then claim mileage. That would result in them entirely profiting from mileage allowance.

If they are doing their job properly, they do need to travel extensively and should not be expected to pay for covering such distances. But nor should they profit from them.