Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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198. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the funding provided to each relevant local authority under the public charge point scheme in 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [14599/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Deputy 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.

As part of this policy pathway, my Department is developing plans for a seamless public charging network that will provide for situations or instances where home charging is not possible such as on-street and residential charging, and destination charging.

A national charging infrastructure strategy is due to be published for public consultation shortly which will set out a pathway to stay ahead of demand over the critical period out to 2030.

The Public Charge Point Scheme, which is administered by the SEAI, continues to be available during 2022 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 the scheme is to provide support for the installation of infrastructure which will facilitate owners of electric vehicles, who do not have access to a private parking space, but instead rely on parking their vehicles in public places near their homes to charge their EVs.

A number of local authorities have been in touch with SEAI in relation to the scheme. To date, letters of offer have issued to Louth County Council and Dublin City Council in 2021, to install a total of 29 charge points within their administrative areas. It is anticipated that Tipperary County Council will receive an offer of funding shortly from the SEAI.  The scheme remains open to Local Authorities to apply. 

In the interim, my Department is currently reviewing the Scheme to ensure that it is as effective as possible in driving the decarbonisation effort, and a revised Scheme is likely to be launched shortly after publication of the EV Infrastructure Strategy.

My Department is also developing a new scheme which will support the installation of destination charge points in locations such as visitor centres, leisure facilities and parks. This new initiative will help provide another critical link in the overall network for public charging.