Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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193. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when additional electrical vehicle charging points will be installed in Monaghan town (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22417/21]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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217. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of electronic car charging points in County Monaghan; the locations of same; his plans to deliver new charging points in the county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21382/21]

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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224. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of electric vehicle charging points in each county; the number of electric vehicle charging points that have been installed in each county since the formation of the 33rd Dáil; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21461/21]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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234. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if additional charging electric vehicles will be facilitated in Monaghan town and county (details supplied); the number of charging points in Monaghan town; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21673/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 193, 217, 224 and 234 together.

The Deputies will be aware that the Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle charging network over the coming years. 

€10 million was committed from the Climate Action Fund (CAF) to support ESB investment in the charging network and this has leveraged a further €10 million investment from ESB. This intervention alone will result in:

- 90 additional high power chargers, each capable of charging two vehicles;

- 52 additional fast chargers, which may replace existing standard chargers; and

- 264 replacement standard chargers with more modern technology and with each consisting of two charge points.

The project is due to be completed in 2022.  Further details on ESB charge points nationwide can be found at 

In light of the ESB eCars responsibility in the matter of the number of charge points provided by county, I have forwarded the Deputies' questions to the ESB for direct response.  Please contact my Office if no reply is received within 10 working days. 

While several private operators such as Tesla, Ionity & EasyGO are involved in providing charging infrastructure, my Department does not hold information on the location of charging infrastructure which has been installed without government support.  I am aware, however, that ESB has partnered with Tesco Ireland to install 22kW Standard AC Chargers at 33 Tesco locations around the country in the last number of months. More than 50 of these are planned in total. My Department is also making €2 million available this year through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to support the installation of destination charge points in locations such as hotels and shopping centres. This new initiative will help provide another critical link in the overall network for public charging.

In addition to the ESB project, the Public Charge Point Scheme has been in place since September 2019 and will continue to be available during 2021 to provide local authorities with a grant of up to €5,000 to support the development of on-street public chargers. The primary focus of this scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure which will facilitate owners of electric vehicles (EVs), who do

not have access to a private parking space but rely on parking their vehicles in public places near their homes, to charge their EVs. To date no chargers have been installed by local authorities under the scheme. The SEAI has, however, received requests from 13 local authorities for applications

under the scheme and two completed applications from Louth County Council and Dublin City Council to install a total of 29 charge points within their administrative areas. These applications are currently being assessed for approval. 

Combined with an effective public charging network, Ireland's home charging policy will help sustain and service the expected growth of electric vehicles on Irish roads. Charging while at home accounts for around 80% of electric vehicle charging in Ireland and it is best practice, internationally, to promote home charging as the most common and cheapest form of charging. To support home charging, the SEAI, on behalf of my Department, administers an EV Home Charger Grant of up to €600 towards the purchase and installation of an EV home charger unit.

Work is currently being progressed to expand the EV home charger grant to include shared parking in apartment blocks and similar developments. However, there are a number of complex planning issues to address before we can expand the grant in an appropriate manner so as to include the required categories of shared parking. My Department is working closely with the SEAI and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to address the issues.

On new builds, it should be noted that the EU energy performance and buildings directive requires member states to ensure that appropriate infrastructure is installed in all new residential and non-residential buildings as well as those buildings with more than ten car parking spaces for the purpose of enabling the installation of a larger stage of charging points for electric vehicles. This is currently being transposed into Irish law.