Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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139. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will report on the progress that has been made in increasing the number of electric vehicle charging points available along national motorway routes in particular the M7 route; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22346/22]

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. A national charging infrastructure strategy was published for consultation at the end of March which sets out a pathway to stay ahead of demand over the critical period out to 2025.

The Strategy acknowledges the need for sufficient provision of fast or top-up charging at strategic locations such as along motorways, to enable longer EV journeys and alleviate lingering public concerns such as range anxiety.

There is also 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. 

Preparations are underway to establish Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland. This Office will play an important role in our transition to zero emission vehicles. It will co-ordinate measures to support the uptake of EVs and the rollout of charge point infrastructure.

€10 million was 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. 

While the public consultation regarding the charging infrastructure strategy is ongoing, my Department continues to engage directly with stakeholders to ensure that a sufficient number of chargers, as well as a sufficient spread of charger types, will be in place to meet demand as we move towards our 2030 target of circa 1 million EVs on the road.