Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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Before I call my colleague and friend, Senator McGahon, I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Mary Butler, to the House. She is always refreshingly honest and open with us and a good conversation ensues.

John McGahon (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State for coming to the House. I know she has a very busy portfolio and that this is not in her brief. I appreciate her taking the time to answer this Commencement matter. Before I start into the merits of it, I will give the Minister of State the context of it. I am a big advocate of electric vehicles and of the charging infrastructure, and I was amazed a couple of weeks ago when I came across what I found to be a strange anomaly, that is, in Ireland one can only avail of an electric vehicle home charging point if one has a private driveway. That is simple enough because if one has a private driveway, one can take the car in and plug it in. However, that rules out thousands of people in this country, including people who live in apartment blocks, on terraced streets or anybody who does not have a private driveway.

We are at the beginning of this type of technology but we have seriously ambitious targets to have 1 million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030. That is just eight years away, within approximately 20 days' time. What I hope to get from Government is a solution to the problem. What are we planning to do to try to ensure people who live in apartment blocks or terraced houses and who do not have access to private driveways can access charging points?

Some of the new regulations, as the Minister of State will be aware, include regulations under which newly built apartment blocks must have a certain number of electric vehicle charging points, and that is fair enough. That goes perhaps some way in trying to solving the problem in private housing estates. Another thing that can happen is that a management company can decide to put in a couple of charging points, although this can be very difficult because management companies do not want to do it. We want to get to a stage where everyone in this country has an electric vehicle, so it is not going to be feasible for hundreds of charging points to be put into estates. We need something where every home owner can have access. If it is the case that it cannot be physically attached from the home to the car, we need to come up with new forms of technology to get around this.

Talking about new technology, one thing we could look into is what they are doing in Germany at the moment which is interesting. There have been trials where an electric vehicle can connect into an electric light on a street and charge from that light. That means somebody living in a terraced house in Dundalk or anywhere in the country who is not able to block a public pathway or footpath by connecting the car to the house could plug into an ESB pole and take some of the electricity from that for a point in time. It is a new technology in Germany and it is something that could resolve the problem.

The future is bright for electric vehicles. I have no doubt that in the next couple of years we are going to see a reduction in the cost of electric vehicles and an increase in the range of electric vehicles and the distances they can go. When the ranges in electric vehicles increase it will reduce the need for chargers at the same time. The reason I brought forward this Commencement matter today is that we are excluding many thousands of people in this country from the use of an electric vehicle and from having a home charging point by their lack of a private driveway. I hope the Government can offer some solutions on what its plans are and how we hope to resolve this anomaly at some stage in the future.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for the warm welcome, as always. I also thank Senator McGahon for raising this important matter. The Senator outlined very well how access to a driveway or garden system rules out electric vehicle ownership for thousands of people and homeowners. I apologise on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, and Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, who are unable to be here as they are both in Cabinet.

The Government' s policy regarding the increased usage of electric vehicles, EVs, is primarily driven by the Climate Action Plan 2021, which sets a target of 945,000 EVs by 2030. The Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle charging network over the coming years. A national charging infrastructure strategy is due for publication early next year and will set out a pathway to stay ahead of demand over the critical period out to 2030. An effective and reliable recharging network is essential to enabling drivers to choose electric. Not having access to a charging point cannot be a deterrent to people owning an electric vehicle. Where it is, people are certainly not going to consider moving to an electric vehicle when choosing a car. Charging at home is the most convenient and cheapest way to recharge. Targeting the installation of smart home chargers is a priority as we look to move towards more energy-efficient and sustainable ways to charge.

The EV home charger grant scheme is available from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, and has been in operation since January 2018 to support the installation of home chargers for purchasers of new and second-hand battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The grant provides generous support towards the full cost of installation of a home charger up to a maximum of €600. However, as stated by the Senator, there are houses and dwellings in Ireland where home charging is not an option due to the lack of a driveway or garden. As such, there is also a need for a seamless public charging network that will provide for situations or instances where home charging is not possible, including on-street and residential charging, destination charging and workplace charging.

In terms of existing supports for public charging, the public charge point scheme has been in place since September 2019 and continues to be available during 2021 to provide local authorities with a grant of up to €5,000 to support the development of on-street public chargers. I note with interest the Senator’s point about Germany’s use of lamp-posts for the purpose of charging EVs, which appears to me to be a perfectly reasonable aspiration. The primary focus of the scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure, which will facilitate owners of electric vehicles who do not have access to a private parking space but who instead rely on parking their vehicles in public places near their homes, to charge their EVs.

The Department of Transport is currently reviewing the scheme to ensure that it is as effective as possible in driving forward the national decarbonisation effort and is working closely with a number of key stakeholders, including local government, to ensure that the charging infrastructure stays ahead of demand. This includes developing appropriate guidance for local authorities in line with the programme for Government, which will ensure that we can continue to expand our national charging network through supports for on-street chargers.

The Department is aware that a report was published by the County and City Management Association which contains guidance to local authorities on the provision of charging infrastructure. The document is available for viewing online. Meanwhile, work is being progressed to expand the EV home charger grant in such a way as to include shared parking in apartment blocks and similar developments. The Department is working closely with the SEAI and expects a scheme for apartments to open in the near future.

John McGahon (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for the very comprehensive reply. The primary focus of the scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure. We need to provide an increased public charging network for those who do not have access to a private driveway.

The Minister of State mentioned that the Department is working closely with the SEAI and expects a scheme for apartments to open in the near future. That goes a long way towards trying to resolve the very issue that I have raised. I am glad to hear that response from Government today. However, as stated by the Minister of State, we have to make sure that we minimise the deterrents. For a person to choose to purchase an electric vehicle, it has to be as simple as possible. If I want to buy an electric vehicle but I note that my nearest charging point is half way up the town or two estates away where there are only two spaces that are always in use, I will not make the move to an electric vehicle. We need to increase the public infrastructure for charging vehicles but it would be really useful for us to look at some of the best practice on the Continent and see what is being done there.Germany is one example. We need to be able to think a little outside the box about how to provide what is not necessarily public infrastructure. I have gone over time but the Minister of State gets the point I am making. I am interested in hearing her response.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The EV policy pathway working group, consisting of seven Departments and the Sustainable SEAI, considered a mix of policies to enable Ireland to meet the climate action plan target which will require a significant ramping up of EV sales. At the end of October, there were 46,600 EVs registered for taxation. We committed €10 million from the climate action fund to support ESB investment in the charging network. This has leveraged a further €10 million investment from the ESB, with the infrastructure to be in place by the end of 2022. This intervention alone will result in 90 additional high-power chargers, each capable of charging two vehicles, 52 additional fast chargers that may replace existing standard chargers and 264 replacement standard chargers with more modern technology and each consisting of two charge points.

I take the Senator’s point on people living in apartments and people without driveways. I look forward to the report we will have in the new year because if we want to meet our target, we cannot have this being a deterrent to people buying EVs. Having an EV must advantage people.