Mr. Paul Mulvaney:

There are approximately 800 charging points across the country. They are divided among all Twenty-six Counties. There are approximately 80 new-model DC chargers, which are really fast, and approximately 720 standard chargers. It costs approximately €50,000 to install a fast charger and approximately €10,000 to install a standard charger. To date, the ESB has spent between €12 million and €13 million nationally on the installation of the physical infrastructure on the ground. That accounts for some of the money that was referred to earlier by the CER. It is not our intention to expand the national electric vehicle infrastructure network any further until there is some clarity regarding the future role of the ESB in this regard. The ownership model will have to be decided on by the CER.

When the e-car project was started in 2010, the Government of the time estimated that the ESB and the car manufacturers would require approximately €25 million to install and roll out a national electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Approximately a year ago, the ESB finished its programme of providing not just the charging infrastructure, but also the ICT computer systems required to ensure the drivers of electric vehicles know whether every charging point in the country is working or is in use at any particular point in time and the proper billing systems linking to the supply companies. The ESB estimates that the total cost of doing all of this was €31.5 million. Given that this end-to-end national infrastructure is as good as, if not better than, what has been done in most other European jurisdictions, we feel it was good value for money. There is a difference of €6.1 million between the original €25 million we received from the CER and the costs we have incurred in rolling out the infrastructure. We believe it costs between €3 million and €4 million to run the electric vehicle system each year. This includes the replacement of very old chargers that were made by companies that are no longer in existence. When the ESB did this work in 2011 or 2012, it was pioneering stuff.

We would be willing to do that on a pass through basis for a number of years until there was between 25,000 and 30,000 vehicles in the country. If there was an agreement that the timing was right between the various Departments, the IEVOA, car manufacturers and so on - a costing mechanism would have to be introduced at some stage - the ESB at that point of time would run it on a commercial basis from then on. We have received the €25 million in funding agreed initially. There was a shortfall of just over €6 million, which has been covered by ESB, which is being considered at the present time, and then it will cost €X million per year to keep the system going to everybody's advantage until the company can commercialise.