Dr. Aoife O'Grady:

I thank the Deputy for his question. I will deal the vehicle registration tax, VRT, incentivisation first and then move on to infrastructure. On VRT, just to start, we would note that there has actually been a significant change in the VRT rates over the past two budgets. Going back to budget 2021, we had a transformation in our VRT rates. We went up to a multiple of 20 bands, where there had been much fewer, and the differential between the lowest VRT rate of 7% and the highest VRT was 37%. That brought in a much bigger change between the lower emitting vehicles and the highest emitting ones. Last year, there was then a further incremental approach taken where there was a 0% increase on the first eight bands, a 1% increase in respect of bands 9 to 12, 2% in respect of bands from 12 to 16 and 4% in respect of the highest emitting vehicles. That brought in a further change. We also have a relief for VRT on battery EVs up to a value of €50,000.

There is quite a lot available for someone purchasing an EV at the moment. I would always like to see greater incentivisation, and I work with my colleagues in the Department of Finance to try to push that agenda. We have a very generous suite of measures both in terms of capital grants and through the VRT system to incentivise the uptake of EVs. So much so that if one gets a full rebate for an EV and a capital grant, one can get €10,000 off the price of the on-the-road vehicle, which is pretty good. In the UK two weeks ago, they removed any grant for a passenger EV. In terms of what Ireland is offering compared with our nearest neighbours, we have a very good system.

We are in discussions with the Department of Finance on ways that we could use the taxation system to further incentivise the uptake of EVs. That will continue throughout the summer months. We will get the outcome in budget 2023.

On infrastructure and the need to accelerate the roll-out of publicly accessible EV charging infrastructure, that is a space where we probably have not, at central and local government level, been able to deliver as much as is needed. There are quite a few public charging points in place, but we always need to be ahead of demand. The Department published the draft EV infrastructure strategy earlier this year. It was open for consultation until the end of May. Within that draft strategy, there is an acknowledgement that the offering for local authorities either was not sufficient in the context of funding or when it came to support. In terms of helping and supporting local authorities to deliver greater EV charging infrastructure, the draft strategy proposes that we support local authorities in the development of an approach for a local EV charging network, which is exactly what the four Dublin local authorities have done. We have been engaging with them throughout the year and are delighted to see the publication of their strategy. It will help Dublin move forward. Now that the four authorities have set out what they want to do, we will be able to support them through capital funding in implementing the strategy. We would like to see other local authorities doing likewise. We proposed to offer them supports, financially and through the setting up a kind of a framework system whereby they could draw on expertise in order to help them to design and deliver a strategy for EV charging, maybe at a regional level, in the way that the four local authorities in Dublin have done in respect of the greater Dublin area or the Dublin metropolitan area. That might be something worth looking at.

Where we had a local authority public points scheme - which was run through the SEAI and which is still available - there is an acknowledgement from local authorities that this does not really provide sufficient cover on the upfront capital costs for delivery of EV charging infrastructure. As a result, we are proposing two schemes that local authorities will be able to avail of. One is specifically for local authorities. It is what we call the neighbourhood or residential charging scheme and it would see publicly accessible charging points designed for areas where residents do not have driveways. It is for people living towns or city centres who have either very small front gardens or who can just walk out their front doors and onto the street. Such people cannot put in home charging points. We would be funding local authorities to set up on-street charging or perhaps a local hub people can access. The idea would be that this would be accessible and local and would suit local needs. People would not have to walk or drive far to get to these points. That would be the first aspect of public point charging that we would support.

The second aspect would be a destination charging point scheme whereby local authorities would be able to avail of funding for local facilities, such as libraries, public authority car parks and leisure centres.. This would also be open to the private sector as well.

We anticipate that local authorities would get support for the design of infrastructure strategies for their areas, public point charging schemes for residential use where people do not have access to home chargers and the destination charging scheme relating to trip generators at locations to which people would be travelling anyway and could park and top up while they are going about their business.