Ms Marguerite Sayers:

This is very important. We have a range of tariffs in the State, depending on the electricity supplier. If a person has a dual tariff meter and a night-time product, then he or she will be getting the electricity at half price. I am aware we have smart meters rolled out to almost 600,000 homes and an increasing number over time. This will facilitate additional levels of time-of-use charging and tariffs. We will see an increasing number of products that will incentivise people to do that. The retail suppliers get energy more cheaply at night, so it makes sense to pass it on to customers. The system will work to make sure we incentivise people to charge at night. I will give the committee a sense of the value this is. You can charge 100 km on a car at night for about €1.60 and certainly less than €2.

The equivalent for a vehicle with an internal combustion engine is something of the order of €22. There are big savings to be made. It goes back to the point Mr. Cooke made, which is that while it is very expensive or more expensive to buy an electric car upfront, the running costs are lower. It is another incentive for drivers to move towards EVs, but they must be charged at night to get the benefits.