Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2018
544. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount spent on the public network of electric charging points for electric vehicles in each of the years 2013 to 2017; and the amounts allocated for 2018 to 2021, respectively. [7215/18]
View answerThe ESB, through its eCars programme, has rolled out both publicly accessible charging infrastructure and domestic charge points for electric vehicles.
In March 2014, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities approved an application from ESB Networks to recover the costs of a pilot project to a maximum of €25 million from use of system charges to cover the rollout of this infrastructure. Following a public consultation process, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities published its independent regulatory decision in relation to the ownership of this infrastructure in October 2017. A key outcome of the decision is that the charging network should not form part of the regulated asset base and therefore expansions of the network should not be funded from network charges. This is in keeping with the proposals set out by the European Commission in the Clean Energy for All Europeans package which was published in 2016. The decision also set out the need for the electric vehicle charging infrastructure to operate on a commercial basis. In the absence of State-led support, this is unlikely to happen in the near term.
In order to support the provision of public charging, funding has been allocated in my Department's budget for the first time this year, with a particular focus on increasing the number of rapid chargers on key national routes. A total of €1.8m consisting of €1.5m capital and €0.3m current spending has been allocated for 2018. No decision has been reached yet on allocations for future years.
