Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 22 October 2020
Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Revised)
Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I thank the Minister for attending. Deputy Whitmore covered the issue I wished to raise. My question relates to the expenditure on EV charging facilities. The Minister mentioned that the ESB is on target, which is good to hear. Will he consider if we are doing enough in that area? The promotion of home installation of charging points is something from which communities will benefit, particularly from the point of view of trying to cover as many communities as possible. I will give the Minister an example. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one public charging point in my constituency. It is in Swords, which has a population of approximately 60,000. The socioeconomics of the community would lend themselves to the purchasing of private EVs. I appreciate that the targets have perhaps been met but the question is whether the targets are high enough? Will the Minister comment on that general point? I do not want to couch that as a criticism. It is not, but perhaps we need to be more ambitious, which is something the Minister has repeatedly stated in the Dáil in terms of his ambition for the Ministry.