Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with much of what has been said. I wrote to the Minister last year to point out that in Ballyshannon and Bundoran in County Donegal there were two electric vehicle charge points. Both were taken away and not replaced. That is happening in many places throughout the country. Electric car owners plan their journey because they have to charge them. When they travel and stop somewhere, they find a car is already being charged at that point. The problem is that we do not have nearly enough charging points. I know that many of the car manufacturers are supplying large batteries of up to 60 kW, which will improve their range. However, particularly for people who live in rural areas and have longer journeys to make, we need to have more charging points in place. We will need to look again at the model that was in place, whereby ESB was providing them free of charge. Every public lamp post has a duct containing electric cables. It should be possible to install charging points on many of them. That will have to be done throughout the country if we are to take the issue seriously.

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