Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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248. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the progress made on enabling members of the public to use electric vehicle charging facilities in Government Departments’ car parks as indicated by the former Minister; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36151/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Enabling access to Government Department carparks for the purpose of EV charging or otherwise is not under active consideration by my Department. There are various issues that would arise including insurance, security etc that would need to be carefully considered. The Government is fully committed to supporting a significant expansion and modernisation of the EV charging network over the coming years. Underpinning this commitment are a number of policies, beginning at a high level with the National EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy, and then supplemented by the National Road EV Charging Network Plan and the draft Regional and Local EV Charging Network Plan.

Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI), an office within the Department of Transport, co-ordinates measures to support the uptake of EVs and the roll-out of charge point infrastructure to accelerate progress towards Ireland’s ambitious targets.

While the installation of EV charging in public sector car parking is a matter for the Office of Public Works (OPW), the Regional and Local EV Charging Network Plan was launched in April this year and sets targets and strategies for Local Authorities to drive EV infrastructure development at destination and neighbourhood locations, with government support.

This plan will help deliver the charging infrastructure people need, where they need it, at home, on the road, and at key destinations and neighbourhoods across communities.

ZEVI has also developed a Local Authority EV Charging Infrastructure Pilot Programme and the Department is funding dedicated EV charging infrastructure officers in each Local Authority, to co-ordinate and lead on the roll out of charging infrastructure.