Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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167. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport for an update on providing an increased number of e-car public charging points for Cork city and county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29784/24]

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.

The number of publicly available charge points in Ireland has increased from 1,700 in September 2022 to 2,400. To achieve Ireland’s EU targets under the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), it is expected that there will be 3,200 – 6,210 public chargers required nationally by 2025.

The EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy 2022-2025 sets out the Government’s ambition regarding the delivery of this network to support up to 195,000 electric cars and vans by the middle of the decade.

Arising from this strategy, the National EV Charging Network Plan, published in May 2024, will see chargers installed every 60km on major roads.

The Draft Regional and Local EV Charging Network Plan, published for public consultation in May 2024, focuses on neighbourhood and destination charging locations and will be led by Local Authorities in partnership with both public and private sectors. Local Authorities are ideally suited to accelerate the delivery of charging infrastructure at the local level that is financially sustainable and best ensures equitable access for all.

The plan provides a pathway for the accelerated delivery of regional and local networks of public EV charging infrastructure in cities, towns and villages across Ireland, in line with both national and European ambitions for cleaner transportation.

Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) have been engaging extensively with Local Authorities and will provide funding and guidance to them for developing their strategies and subsequent implementation plans.

The Department of Transport does not currently maintain information on available publicly accessible EV charging stations because they are owned and operated by commercial charge point operators, who are not currently obliged to share this information. Any data available at present is sourced from market operators who provide EV information services to charge point operators to facilitate drivers in locating charge points. This is operational data and it has not been possible for ZEVI to fully verify this data.

ZEVI are at present developing a Data Strategy in line with the provisions of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) which, when implemented, will give the Department better visibility on the number, location and status of EV charge points across the network via a shared and open data system, and depending on information provided by charge-point operators.

The system will collect the near-real-time data provided by charge-point operators regarding the charge-points. The obligation on charge-point operators and owners to share this data via API, at no cost, to all data users, is legislated for within AFIR. This should facilitate data users, including the Department, to build a fuller data set. This data system is expected to be in place by April 2025.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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168. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of public e-car charging points available for the years 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024, by location, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29785/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Department of Transport, through Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) are investing €100m between now and 2025, in the delivery of EV infrastructure, as part of the EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy.

The number of publicly available charge points in Ireland has increased from approximately 1,700 in September 2022 to over 2,400 in 2024.

The Department of Transport does not currently maintain information on available publicly accessible EV charging stations because they are owned and operated by commercial charge point operators, who are not currently obliged to share this information. Any data available at present is sourced from market operators who provide EV information services to charge point operators to facilitate drivers in locating charge points. This is operational data and cannot be considered as either complete or verified.

However, ZEVI are at present developing a Data Strategy in line with the provisions of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) which, when implemented, will give the Department better visibility on the number, location and status of EV charge points across the network via a shared and open data system, and depending on information provided by charge-point operators.

The system will collect the near-real-time data provided by charge-point operators regarding the charge-points. The obligation on charge-point operators and owners to share this data via API, at no cost, to all data users, is legislated for within AFIR. This should facilitate data users, including the Department, to build a fuller data set. This data system is expected to be in place by April 2025.

In the meantime, a summary of the number of EV charge points is provided below:

Estimated Number of publicly accessible EV charge points by year:

As of Jan 2023 - Approximately 1700

As of September 2023 - Approximately 2100

As of June 2024 - Approximately 2400.