Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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200. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his engagement with local authorities to progress their plans for EV charging points; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62532/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle (EV) charging network over the coming years. As you are aware, a draft national EV charging infrastructure strategy, covering the crucial period out to 2025 was published for consultation in March. The draft strategy sets out the government’s ambition regarding the delivery of a public EV charging network to support up to 195,000 electric cars and vans by the middle of the decade. Responses and submissions received as part of the consultation are currently being considered in the development of the final Strategy for publication next month.

Home charging is the primary charging method for most Irish EV owners as it’s convenient and cheaper for the consumer as well as assisting in the overall management of the national grid. Over 80% of charging is expected to happen at home.

However, 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.

In terms of existing supports for public charging, the Public Charge Point Scheme, which is administered by the SEAI, provides 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. It should be noted that this scheme facilitates the installation of standard charge points. My department has committed to reviewing the Scheme to ensure that it is as effective as possible in driving the decarbonisation effort.

On 21st July I launched a new dedicated Office, Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, which will oversee and accelerate Ireland’s transition to zero emission vehicles. Further information on Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland is available at www.gov.ie/zevi.

Local Authorities will be key partners with ZEVI in delivering a national EV charging network, and ZEVI has already established strong links with Local Authorities, with representatives from Local Authorities on the ZEVI Assurance Board, as well as three of its EV infrastructure delivery stakeholder groups.

ZEVI is currently accepting pilot project proposals from interested Local Authorities to trial EV charging infrastructure installations and to assist local authorities to evaluate and design their future local charging networks. The Infrastructure Strategy will be published alongside an Implementation Plan which will set out further details on how ZEVI will work with Local Authorities to deliver EV charging networks in their areas.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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201. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will consider providing electric vehicle charging grants to businesses for their employees and customers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62533/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the electric vehicle (EV) charging network over the coming years. A draft national charging infrastructure strategy for the development of EV charging infrastructure, covering the crucial period out to 2025 was published for consultation in March. The draft strategy sets out the government’s ambition regarding the delivery of a public EV charging network to support up to 194,000 electric cars and vans by the middle of the decade. Responses and submissions received as part of the consultation are currently being considered in the development of the final Strategy for publication next month.

Having an effective and reliable recharging network is essential to enabling drivers to choose electric. Home charging is the primary charging method for most Irish EV owners as it’s convenient and cheaper for the consumer as well assists in the overall management of the national grid. Over 80% of charging is expected to happen at home.

My Department is developing a new destination charging scheme. Destination charging will provide rapid charging solutions (50-100kW typically) at trip attractor locations and businesses such as leisure centres, parks, hotels and visitor attractions where EV drivers could charge their vehicle for 1-3 hours before returning home. There is private sector interest in this area of the EV charging infrastructure market, and in Ireland we have already seen the provision of rapid charging top-up infrastructure in car parks and in trip generating locations such as at supermarkets.

The draft Infrastructure Strategy envisages a supporting role for Government in providing initial seed funding to stimulate and encourage more widespread roll out of this charging infrastructure. Government will also have a key role in coordinating the various stakeholders involved in delivering this infrastructure. This new initiative will help provide another critical link in the overall network for public charging.

In addition, I launched the EV Commercial Fleet Trial on 21 July 2022 to afford businesses the opportunity to test an EV free of charge for a minimum period of 3 months. This trial will allow businesses real world experience of having an EV on their fleet and showcase the benefits, savings and the suitability and viability of EVs in a commercial setting.

The trial will run in four blocks of 50 businesses. The first 50 businesses have had their premises surveyed for installation of charge points with installations for the first block scheduled to be complete by early December 2022. The first 10 participating vehicles were placed with businesses at the end of November with the remaining 40 vehicles scheduled to be placed with businesses in January 2023. To ensure as positive an experience as possible, ZEVI in conjunction with SEAI have made the decision to install charge points or ensure an operational charging strategy is in place for each business prior to delivery of trial EV.

The participating businesses span a host of different industries and are made up of large industry, public sector and SMEs.