Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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461. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the ESB is no longer rolling out new charging infrastructure in the form of charging points for electric vehicles; the measures he is putting in place to remedy this; and the funding amounts and timelines for same. [27965/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The majority of the existing network of publicly accessible charge points was rolled out by the ESB through its eCars programme. In addition, up to the end of 2017, the ESB installed free home charge points for the purchasers of new electric vehicles.

In March 2014, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities approved an application from ESB Networks to recover the costs to a maximum of €25 million from network charges to cover the rollout of this infrastructure. Following a public consultation process, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities published its independent regulatory decision in October 2017. A key outcome of the decision is that expansions of the public charging network and the installation of home charging points could no longer be funded from network charges.

The vast majority of electric vehicle charging happens at home, which aligns with both technology and patterns of use of vehicles. To support home charging, I introduced the Electric Vehicle Home Charger Grant scheme this year. This scheme, which came into operation on 1 January 2018, supports the cost of installing a home charger up to a maximum of €600 for buyers of both new and second-hand electric vehicles.

The regulatory decision by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities also set out the need for the electric vehicle charging infrastructure to operate on a commercial basis. In the absence of State-led support, this is unlikely to happen in the near term. Capital funding of €1.5m has, therefore, been allocated in my Department's budget this year to support the provision of public charging.

A key aspect of the work of the Low Emission Vehicle Taskforce, co-chaired by my Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, involves examining how best to support the development of the public charging network. The first phase of the Taskforce's work, which focuses on electric vehicles, is nearing completion and I expect to bring forward proposals that will support the provision of effective and efficient publically accessible electric vehicle charging later this year.

Funding for public charging in local communities is already available through the Better Energy Communities Scheme. The scheme, which is administered by the SEAI, supports community based partnerships to improve the energy efficiency of homes, businesses and community facilities in a local area.