Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to outline further what is happening on the ground. The community in Courtmacsherry, realising that EV chargers were going to be an important piece infrastructure in future, decided to get the finances together themselves to purchase one, but Cork County Council refused to install it. The council’s response was that it had no role in providing this type of public charging infrastructure.

It is incredibly disappointing and begs the question of what the hell the point of a EV public grant scheme is. It is absolutely irrelevant if local authorities do not see themselves as playing a role in it. We must therefore dig deeper into the issue. Cork County Council is not here to answer and the Department is not here but we have the SEAI, which administers that scheme. If Cork County Council is requesting an application form and that is it, and it stops there, what is the future? This applies to all tourism destinations, not just those in west Cork. I am aware I am being parochial about Durrus and Courtmacsherry but the same could be said for Mayo, Clare, Kerry and other places right throughout the west coast and around Ireland. It is going to be a turn-off. It feeds into this fear about the range of EVs.