Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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447. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his expectations and proposals to encourage the use of electric cars as a means of carbon reduction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38880/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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450. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is satisfied with the roll-out of charge points for electric cars across the country and his plans for 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38874/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 447 and 450  together.

Since 2011, the Electric Vehicle Grant Scheme has been supporting and incentivising, through grants of up to €5,000, the deployment of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Ireland. These grants are in addition to tax incentives such as the Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) reliefs of up to €5,000, which apply to EVs and Accelerated Capital Allowances (ACA), which allows companies to offset the cost of investment in qualifying technologies including EVs.  Budget 2017 extended the relief from VRT on EVs for a further 5 year period and on Hybrid vehicles for 2 years.  The purchase of 1,702 new EVs has been supported since the Grant Scheme commenced. Of these, 615 have been grant aided to date this year which is an increase from 2015 when 555 were grant aided over the full year.

The roll-out of the charging infrastructure is an operational matter for the ESB and I do not have any function in this regard.  I am aware, however, that the ESB, through its ecars programme, has been rolling out both publicly accessible charging infrastructure and domestic charge points for electric vehicles. I am advised that almost 900 public charge-points have now been installed nationally including 79 DC fast chargers, most of which have been installed mainly on the inter-urban roads. The location of these charge-points is available on the ‘ecars’ section of the ESB’s website at www.esb.ie.  In addition, I understand that ESB ecars has installed over 1900 charge-points in domestic and commercial premises.

In accordance with the commitment in the Programme for Government, my Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport are establishing and will co-Chair a Low Emissions Vehicles Task Force involving relevant Government Departments and agencies. The first meeting is scheduled for later this month.  A key task will be to examine as a matter of priority what further actions are necessary to further stimulate EV sales and other low emission vehicles to 2020 and beyond. In addition, the Task Force will look at actions to ensure sufficient and effective charging infrastructure exists as the EV fleet develops.