Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle charging network over the coming years. We have committed €10 million from the climate action fund to promote the charging network and this has leveraged a further €10 million investment from ESB. This intervention will result in 90 additional high-power chargers, each capable of charging two vehicles, 52 additional fast chargers, which may replace existing standard chargers, and 264 replacement standard chargers with more modern technology, with each consisting of two charge points.

Since the delivery stage of the product commenced in October 2019, four multicharger sites have been delivered, one each on motorways in Galway, Kildare, Laois and Meath. The programme to upgrade 50 standard chargers to fast chargers has already commenced with 13 installations now in place. In addition, 159 standard chargers, each with two charge points, have been replaced, bringing the total number of those chargers nationally to 318.

My Department also provides support to the SEAI public charge points scheme. This scheme provides funding to local authorities for the development of on-street public chargers. The primary focus of this scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure which would facilitate owners of EVs who do not have access to a private parking space but rely on parking their vehicles on the public street to charge their EVs near their homes. A total of 75% of the capital cost is provided through a grant up to a maximum of €5,000 per charging point.

My Department will continue to support this scheme through the grants provided by the SEAI and in parallel is developing a charging infrastructure strategy in line with the programme for Government. This will ensure capacity keeps ahead of demand, while also putting in place guidance for local authorities on how best to expand the network of public charge points at local, national and regional levels.

Work is currently being progressed to expand the EV home charger grant to include shared parking in apartment blocks and similar developments. However, there are a number of complex planning and legal issues to address before we can expand the grant in an appropriate manner so as to include the required categories of shared parking. My Department is working closely with the SEAI and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to address the issues.

On new build, it should be noted that the EU energy performance and buildings directive requires member states to ensure that appropriate infrastructure is installed in all new residential and non-residential buildings as well as those buildings with more than ten car parking spaces for the purpose of enabling the installation of a larger stage of charging points for electric vehicles. It is intended that the EU requirement will be transposed into Irish law by the end of this year.

In addition to the schemes outlined above, the Department of Transport is also undertaking an EV small public service vehicles, SPSV, charger project, which will see the installation of SPSV-dedicated EV chargers at Dublin and Cork airports and at Heuston train station in Dublin, Colbert train station in Limerick and Kent train station in Cork. In budget 2021, additional funding has been allocated to extend this dedicated infrastructure network further and dedicated recharging network is key to supporting the sector in making the switch to greener, cleaner alternatives.

See this speech in context