Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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32. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the planned actions his Department has to improve the ease of use of electric cars; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35055/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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In April 2011, I introduced the Electric Vehicle (EV) Grant Scheme to incentivise and support, through grants of up to €5,000, the early deployment of electric vehicles in Ireland in order to provide an early critical mass of such vehicles and to encourage the growth of a stable and robust market for these vehicles.

Since its introduction, the scheme, which is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, has provided grants for 252 vehicles, including 24 in 2013. A €1 million capital allocation has been made in my Department’s 2013 budget for grants towards the purchase of new electric vehicles.

AS well as the EV Grant Scheme, the ESB, through its Ecars programme, is continuing to roll out both publicly accessible charging infrastructure and domestic charge points, and has informed my Department that its targets are to install at least 1,000 publicly accessible charge points in all main towns and cities and 60 fast chargers on major roads by the end of 2013.