Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 18 together.

I thank the Deputy for the very relevant questions. Providing adequate charging infrastructure is critical to ensure the continued growth in the uptake of electric vehicles. There are currently 668 standard public charge points in the ESB's ecars network and a further limited number provided by local authorities and retail outlets. There are also 77 fast chargers, mainly on national routes. Most standard public chargers can provide approximately 100 km of range in one hour whereas fast chargers typically provide 100 km of range in 20 minutes. Since the start of last year, a €600 grant has been in place for home chargers and over 1,000 grants have been paid out to date. Under the first call for applications from the climate action fund, I approved funding of up to €10 million to support ESB ecars to develop a nationwide, state-of-the-art electric vehicle fast charging network. The key elements include six high speed charging hubs on motorways capable of charging eight vehicles simultaneously; 16 high speed charging hubs capable of charging four vehicles simultaneously; additional high power chargers at 34 current 50 kW locations; upgrading over 50 22 kW chargers to 50 kW, and replacing up to 264 locations with 528 charge points at the pre-existing pilot grade of 22 kW to next generation high reliability models. It is an ambitious programme. New EU regulations will require employers with over 20 parking spaces to provide charging points by 2020. This is in addition to the requirements in respect of new developments for both commercial and multiple dwelling developments. As part of the climate action plan I am developing, I intend to look at the adequacy of the infrastructure and its path of growth to ensure we can meet the ambitious target we have set for electric vehicles in the network.

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