Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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57. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will report on the additional measures he has taken to increase the proportion of electric vehicles here; and the measures taken to expedite the roll-out of on street charging infrastructure. [13939/17]

Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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58. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to promote the uptake of electric vehicles here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13933/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 57 and 58 together.

The Electric Vehicles Grant Scheme provides grant aid of up to €5,000 towards the purchase of a new Electric Vehicle (EV) and is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.  These grants are in addition to the VRT reliefs of up to €5,000 that also apply to EVs.  Budget 2017 extended VRT reliefs on Battery Electric Vehicles to 2021 and on Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles to end 2018. The grants scheme also remains in place.

Apart from general macroeconomic considerations, technology advancement, affordability and consumer choice are the most important levers in triggering consumers to move to electric vehicles. Notwithstanding the substantial exchequer support available for new electric vehicles, the reality of a halving of the price of oil and the pace of technology improvement has very significantly impacted electric vehicle market penetration.

Nevertheless we have seen increasing numbers of EVs registered in Ireland since the introduction of the EV Grant Scheme in 2011. To date, the purchase of 1,903 new electric vehicles has been supported under the scheme, most of which were grant aided since 2015. So far in 2017, 175 new EVs have been grant aided.

In accordance with the commitment in the Programme for Government, my Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport are co-chairing a Low Emission Vehicles (LEV) Task Force involving relevant Government Departments and agencies. The work of the task force has been divided into two phases with the first phase focusing solely on EVs. The Task Force expects to report on an interim basis to Government on the first phase by June 2017, with associated recommendations. These recommendations will suggest a range of options for facilitating greater uptake of EVs in the coming years.

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 routes. 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 2000 charge-points in domestic and commercial premises.