Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022
121. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Transport the ownership and maintenance model that is intended for infrastructure developed from the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy 2022-2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20890/22]
View answerThe Climate Action Plan 2021 set a target of 945,000 EVs by 2030. The Deputy will be aware that the Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle charging network over the coming years, to facilitate the expansion of EVs in the Irish car fleet. A draft National Charging Infrastructure Strategy has been published for public consultation which sets out a pathway for the provision of charging infrastructure to stay ahead of demand.
The Infrastructure Strategy proposes that for those who cannot charge at home, provision of residential charging solutions that give the same benefits and mirror the home charging option should be the first objective.
There is an onus on national and local government to facilitate the provision of these charging solutions for citizens who do not have access to a home charge point.
The Strategy proposes a new Residential charging scheme that will replace the existing Public Points scheme. It is envisaged that this new scheme will provide significant co-funding of 75% to Local Authorities to support the design of local area charging networks, as well as the delivery and installation of these networks which are intended to comprise both on-street charging in areas where residents do not have access to home charging solutions, and destination charge points.
It will be a matter for the relevant Local Authorities to make decisions on ownership and operating models for such infrastructure, whereas the Strategy lays down the expected standards for publicly accessible charging points, such as ease of use, interoperability of equipment and availability of a universal payment method.
For other charging solutions, such as en-route charging, the ownership and operation of charging hubs and similar facilitates will depend on the site ownership as well as any commercial or contracted agreements for operation, which are not a matter for my Department.
