John Clendennen (Offaly, Fine Gael)

Many of the community groups that pursued the initiative did so as part of a revenue-generating initiative, but there has been frustration. The Minister of State referred to some of the schemes but there are others that go back as far as July 2023, when expressions of interest would have been sought. These are ongoing. It takes more than two years to get an EV charging station installed at a community centre. There is frustration over how long it takes and the burden of administration. Rather than examining how we deliver the infrastructure, we need to examine the timeframe of delivery and place a serious onus on the agencies and scheme operators to deliver in a much shorter space of time than at present.

In town and village centres, the local authorities have to step up to the mark. Householders on streetscapes that have no access to a connection are frustrated. In other countries, streetlight poles have been used in this regard, and that is one of the initiatives we should be considering.

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