Professor John FitzGerald:

On that last point, I am concerned that the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport has not come up with a plan, but it needs a cross-governmental approach. The ESB has been deploying the charging points infrastructure, and it is regulated by the regulator which is under the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment. If we are dealing with houses, it is the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. We need a plan.

I was talking to somebody who has an electric car and is leading by example. He was going north and he ran out of juice halfway to Northern Ireland. One charging point in the lay-by was not working. He had to turn around and go back towards Dublin to the one charging point on the other side of the road, wait for it, and then do another loop to get back.

I looked at this issue and said that I would like to buy an electric car, but not unless it could get me to Kilcrohane in one charge, which is my test, and it could not. I therefore bought a hybrid. We need to deploy the infrastructure well in advance. For people to adopt electric cars, they must know that when the range is there, it is going to work for them.

We have not seen that plan, which is one of the things we need. We are going to tackle transport over the coming year. The council has not expressed a detailed decision on this. I anticipate that it will say what the Deputy is saying.