Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I agree with the Deputy. I met with Shai Agassi of Better Place, one of the companies the Deputy mentioned, and said that we are open in that regard. This is new technology but we are at the frontier. We are the first country to put this out on a nationwide basis. This is one of the locations to which people will come to try to test out these systems.

In terms of the way this will develop and what ESB has agreed to, it is not exclusive to any one company to put in meters but in regard to its meters, we are saying it should be open to other suppliers also to use those charging points. Even though ESB might put in an extra piece of infrastructure, it would be on an open access basis in that another supply company could come in and provide some of the innovation or charging flexibility the Deputy mentioned. I believe the characteristics of this technology will work best when the network is more open and accessible to different technological solutions, be it a project like Better Place coming in with a battery changing system or a-----

See this speech in context