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Electric Vehicles

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 June 2022

Thursday, 2 June 2022

Ceisteanna (195)

Seán Canney

Ceist:

195. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Transport the plans that he is putting in place to ensure that the necessary public European Union charging infrastructure is put in place to deal with the increase in demand as more electric cars are purchased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28724/22]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

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. A national charging infrastructure strategy was published for consultation at the end of this March which sets out a pathway to stay ahead of demand over the critical period out to 2025.

Preparations are underway to establish Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland. This Office will play an important role in our transition to zero emission vehicles. It will co-ordinate measures to support the uptake of EVs and the rollout of charge point infrastructure.

Having an effective and reliable recharging network is essential to enabling drivers to choose electric. Charging at home is the most convenient and cheapest way to recharge. Targeting the installation of smart home chargers is a priority as we look to moving towards more energy efficient and sustainable ways to charge. A grant is available from the SEAI for those individuals seeking to install a home charger. Work is currently being progressed to expand the EV home charger grant to include shared parking in apartment blocks and similar developments. My Department is working closely with the SEAI and expects a scheme for apartments to open shortly.

There is also a need for a seamless public charging network that will provide for situations or instances where home charging is not possible such as neighbourhood or residential charging, destination charging, and motorway charging. 

The Department is working closely with a number of key stakeholders, including Local Government, to ensure electric vehicle charging infrastructure stays ahead of demand.  

€10 million was committed from the Climate Action Fund to support ESB investment in the charging network and this has leveraged a further €10 million investment from ESB, with the infrastructure to be in place by the end of 2022. This intervention alone will result in:

- 90 additional high power chargers, each capable of charging two vehicles -  Seventeen high-power chargers distributed across 14 multi-vehicle hubs have been delivered as part of the programme to date.

- 52 additional fast chargers, which may replace existing standard chargers - This work is completed at 36 locations.

- 264 replacement standard chargers with more modern technology and with each consisting of two charge points - This work is substantially complete. 258 of the chargers have now been successfully replaced.

Further details on the progression of this project can be found at esb.ie/ecars/our-network/network-upgrades

The Public Charge Point Scheme continues to be available during 2022 to provide local authorities with a grant of up to €5,000 to support the development of on-street public chargers. The primary focus of the scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure which will facilitate owners of electric vehicles, who do not have access to a private parking space, but instead rely on parking their vehicles in public places near their homes to charge their EVs. My Department has reviewed the Scheme and has announced through the draft EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy a number of additional actions to ensure that it is as effective as possible in driving the de-carbonisation effort.

My Department is also developing a new scheme which will support the installation of destination charge points in locations such as visitor centres and parks. This new initiative will help provide another critical link in the overall network for public charging.  

While the public consultation regarding the charging infrastructure strategy is ongoing, my Department continues to engage directly with stakeholders to ensure that a sufficient number of chargers, as well as a sufficient spread of charger types, will be in place to meet demand as we move towards our 2030 target of circa 1 million EVs on the road. 

All of the above actions will help us move towards not only our national targets, but towards alignment with our international targets and obligations for decarbonisation such as those set out by the European Union. 

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