Just four local authorities sign up to electric vehicle public charge point scheme

Just four local authorities have signed up to the electric vehicle on-street public charge point scheme since it was introduced more than three years ago but no charger points have been installed to date.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) said a total of 38 points have been applied for by Dublin City Council (9), Louth County Council (20), Tipperary County Council (6) and Meath County Council (3).

The SEAI is the Government agency established to promote and aid the development of sustainable energy in Ireland.

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 scheme was originally introduced in 2019 by then minister for the environment Richard Bruton to support up to 1,000 on-street public charge points over the following five years.

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Fergus Sharkey, Head of Business Supports and Transport at SEAI, said to their knowledge no public charge point had been installed under the scheme to date but some local authorities have requested extensions, “so there is appetite to install them”.

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“SEAI have no control over the installation, other than setting grant deadlines which can be extended on request,” he said.

The SEAI also said at the time of the scheme’s development that it was focused on the demand for on-street charging solutions from local authorities for residential areas and “was designed for this solution”.

“As local authorities tested on-street charging they have encountered a number of challenges with this approach,” it said.

“Some local authorities are considering mobility hubs and fast charging hubs as alternatives, and many have installed on-street charging in commercial areas.

“Demand for the SEAI scheme has been low as a result of alternative approaches taken by local authorities.”

The Department of Environment said it has been engaging closely with the local authorities over the past 12 months to develop plans for the roll-out of electrical vehicle infrastructure in residential neighbourhoods.

It said the national electric vehicle charging strategy is due to be published this week and sets out the different types of charging that will “support the Government’s ambitions in terms of developing a national EV charging network”.

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“Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) is working with the local authorities and regional assemblies to develop a new scheme that will provide more detailed supports to boost the delivery of EV charging at local level,” a spokeswoman said.

Labour’s transport spokesman Duncan Smith said local authorities needed to put “more effort into getting these delivered”.

“We are reliant on local authorities, the ESB, on the State to provide this and they’re not doing this,” said the Dublin Fingal TD.

“I think at local authority level they find it difficult to find the space and power for these points ... I’ve had representations from people who want to buy electric vehicles but they can’t because they live in apartment blocks or terraced housing, they don’t have a front garden, so they don’t have the capacity to charge so they need public charging points.

“They’re not there in sufficient numbers, so people who are able to switch from fossil fuel-burning cars to electric vehicles are unable to do so because public infrastructure isn’t there.”

Mr Bruton said on Monday there had been a “poor response” to the scheme but believed the attitude among some councils was changing, adding that Dublin’s four local authorities had recently commissioned a report looking at a single strategy for EV charging points.

Electric car sales rose sharply last year with a total of 15,462 new cars licensed for the first time in 2022, just over 15 per cent of the total number of new cars registered, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.