Written answers

Wednesday, 27 April 2022

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Electric Vehicles

Photo of Christopher O'SullivanChristopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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70. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of electric vehicle charging points that have been installed by Cork County Council over the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21404/22]

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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71. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if additional funding streams for electric vehicle charging points and docking stations will be made in 2022; if funding will be made available for additional electric vehicle charging points and docking stations in public car parks in Thurles, County Tipperary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21419/22]

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 71 together.

The Climate Action Plan 2021 set a target of 945,000 EVs by 2030.  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, to facilitate the expansion of EVs in the Irish car fleet. A draft National Charging Infrastructure Strategy has been published for public consultation which sets out a pathway for the provision of charging infrastructure to stay ahead of demand. The Consultation is open until the end of May 2021. 

There is a need 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, destination charging, and workplace charging.

My Department is developing a number of new schemes which will support the installation of destination charge points in these locations and will help provide critical links in the overall network for public charging.

The Strategy proposes a new Residential charging scheme that will replace the existing Public Points scheme. It is envisaged that this new scheme will provide significant co-funding of 75% to Local Authorities to support the design of local area charging networks, as well as the delivery and installation of these networks which are intended to comprise both on-street charging in areas where residents do not have access to home charging solutions, and destination charge points.

I anticipate that the Residential Charging Scheme and Destination Charging Scheme will be open to applications for funding  later this year. 

I would welcome applications from both Cork County Council for funding under these new schemes. While the SEAI has not yet received a completed application from Cork County Council for EV charge point funding, I can confirm that Cork County Council requested an application form under the Public Charge Point Scheme in 2021.

Other supports that are available for EV charging infrastructure include the Home Charger Grant.

The EV Home Charger Grant Scheme has been in operation since January 2018 to support the installation of home chargers for purchasers of new and second-hand BEVs and PHEVs.  The grant provides generous support towards the full cost of installation of a home charger up to a maximum of €600. Work is currently being progressed to expand the EV home charger grant to include multi-unit dwellings. This scheme will be launched shortly.

€10 million was also committed from the Climate Action Fund to support ESB investment in the charging network and this has leveraged a further €10 million investment from ESB, with the infrastructure to be in place by the end of 2022. This intervention alone will result in:

- 90 additional high power chargers, each capable of charging two vehicles - Seventeen high-power chargers distributed across 14 multi-vehicle hubs have been delivered as part of the programme to date.

- 52 additional fast chargers, which may replace existing standard chargers - This work is completed at 36 locations.

- 264 replacement standard chargers with more modern technology and with each consisting of two charge points - This work is substantially complete. 258 of the chargers have now been successfully replaced.

Further details on the progression of this project can be found at esb.ie/ecars/our-network/network-upgrades.

To coordinate the provision of EV supports and grants and the delivery of charging infrastructure, the Government will establish an office of Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) within the Department of Transport in Summer 2022. ZEVI will coordinate and support the development and roll-out of publicly accessible charging infrastructure.

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