James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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1247. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the level of funding that has been provided by his Department or agencies under its remit to individual local authorities for the provision of electric vehicle charging points; his plans for this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35043/17]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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1265. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the level of funding that has been provided by his Department or agencies under its remit to local authorities for the provision of electric vehicle charging points; his plans for this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35024/17]

John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1282. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the plans and provisions in place to increase the accessibility to fast charge units for electric cars across the country; his plans to provide incentives to private enterprises to install electric vehicle charge points; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35357/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Question Nos 1247, 1265 and 1282 together.

The recently published National Mitigation Plan recognises how central the development of a sustainable and extensive supporting infrastructure is for the future success of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Ireland. 

To date, the funding and rollout of electric vehicle charging points has been supported by a Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) decision to allow ESB Networks to invest and install electric vehicle infrastructure up to a maximum of €25 million and recover these costs from the Distribution Use of System network charges. This decision has allowed ESB eCars to deliver an extensive public network of both normal and fast charging points across Ireland, and there are now approximately 900 EV charge points installed across Ireland. Of these, over 70 are fast charging points. At present, ESB also provide the installation of free home charging points to the owners of EVs.

The CER decision to facilitate the delivery of EV public and domestic charging points through ESB Networks was taken on a pilot basis and, in October 2016, the CER published a consultation paper (CER/16/286), seeking views on the future ownership of the EV infrastructure. The outcome of the CER process will determine to what extent the electricity consumer will continue to fund public and domestic charge points.  A final decision on this is expected in the coming months. 

The current direct funding available to support the purchase of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is managed by my Department and delivered through a range of financial grants provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

In May this year, my colleague the Minster for Transport, Tourism and Sport published the National Policy Framework on Alternative Fuels Infrastructure for Transport in Ireland 2017 to 2030. This points out that with almost 900 publicly accessible charge points available, Ireland, for a country of its size, has one of the "more comprehensive charge point networks currently in place across Europe". Large car manufacturers are also expected to become involved in the provision of high-powered infrastructure. A number of providers are likely to emerge onto the Irish market in the coming years, providing infrastructure at the higher end of the performance capacity scale, i.e. between 120 kW and 350 kW. These chargers will support quicker charge times and longer travelling ranges depending on the model of car, i.e. more cars will be capable of travelling up to 500 km on one charge."

The Low Emissions Vehicle (LEV) taskforce, which is co-chaired by my Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is considering the range of measures and options available to Government for the purpose of accelerating the deployment of low carbon technologies, especially EVs, in line with its Programme for Government commitment.  The provision of EV infrastructure particularly the installation of electric car charging points is currently being considered by a specific infrastructure Working Group of the Taskforce.