Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. We need to be more ambitious. I had a meeting last week with the Fingal county manager, the mayor and the various directors of services. One of the issues that came up was their working with the three other Dublin local authorities to submit a joint bid to the Department under the scheme that exits for support for municipal e-charging systems and to do that on a citywide basis. Rather than Fingal having a certain type of municipal charge and South Dublin, Dún Laoghaire or Dublin City Council having another, I understand that the four councils have been working together to put in a joint application. I look forward to receiving that. As I said previously, it was very disappointing, given that the fund has been in place for a couple of years and that calls had been made for local authorities to come forward with applications for municipal e-charging, that only two councils - Dublin City Council and Louth County Council - made applications. If the four councils to which I refer are able to put in an ambitious bid, that will start us in the right direction.

There is in the budget - and there will be in future budgets, including next year's - €600 in support for the installation of home charging points. This is to assist people in purchasing EVs. I expect it to take off because, as everyone can see, a number of models with better capabilities and increased range are about to become available. Such models will lower the cost involved and improve matters in every way.

For those of us who represent urban constituencies, one of the big challenges will be providing for apartment dwellers, people living in terraced houses or even those in ordinary suburban areas. If every homeowner in a row of houses was to get an EV and install a heat pump - this is the direction in which we will need to go - how we manage the distribution grid at local level to provide that amount of electricity will be a real challenge. In those circumstances, adopting innovative solutions in respect of municipal charging points, be that using lamp posts, municipal car parking or other mechanisms, is the direction in which we will need to go. First things first, however. I look forward to see what Fingal County Council comes back with along with the other three Dublin councils.