We asked our readers to tell us about their experiences of EV charging in Ireland. In particular, how do they charge their electric vehicles in built-up areas where EV owners might only have on-street parking? The callout followed an Irish Times report on an EV owner in Dublin 6 who was ordered to remove an unauthorised “charging arm” by Dublin City Council.
In their responses readers cited the difficulties they face charging their electric or hybrid car if they do not have off-street parking. Others reported that public charging points are over-subscribed, and they often have to wait to access these charging points at anti-social hours to ensure they will be available. These are some of the responses:
“We have an EV in Rathmines. We cannot convert our front garden into a driveway as our terrace is a protected structure. We have a wide footpath that a charge arm won’t work with, so we haven’t installed one. I contacted the council regarding a Kerbo charge gulley but they rebutted my request and referred me to section 13 of the Roads Act 1993, which prohibits any activity that creates hazards or obstruction on a public road (footpaths are considered public roads). Though Dublin Local Authority launched an electric vehicle charging strategy in 2022, which recommended the development of charging hubs in the short term at various points across the city, there are very few public charging points deployed to date. I have contacted local councillors and TDs but to no avail or support.
Councils all over the UK have deployed footpath solutions such as kerb adjustment, charge gulleys and high-speed chargers for houses that have electric cars but no off-street parking. As far as I can see Irish authorities have made no effort to lead the way here and develop solutions. Surely it’s not beyond a council engineer to develop typical details, an accompanying risk assessment and deploy a solution in a similar format to footpath dishing for driveways. On our street there is a cast-iron rainwater gulley and a water meter in the footpath outside every house but for some reason we can’t get a gulley for EV charging. We charge our car at SuperValu in Kimmage but often have to wait for ages as it is very congested with taxis that park there. I think it would make sense to have some level of differentiation between private and commercial users, eg dedicated taxi-charger stations.
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John Whelan
Co Dublin
There is a complete lack of charging infrastructure within Ireland. I have owned an electric car for five years now and will be switching back to petrol or diesel. The entire EV scheme is doomed to failure in Ireland. There are insufficient charging ports for all small areas. In addition, all new housing has been built with 0.5 parking spots, which means that those who move there may not have the opportunity to park their car to charge it. The demand for cars will not reduce because the transport infrastructure is insufficient. Those cars will not be electric because the electric charging infrastructure is appalling. One particularly annoying circumstance is when you arrive at a charging destination where there is no fast charger, and have to wait for the person to finish and disconnect, which adds hours to a journey. Often the only available chargers are the slower 22kW ones, which means my car takes 6-8 hours to charge.
Dublin resident (Name withheld but verified by The Irish Times)
We installed a device at the back door of the house and we have a “garage” entrance replacing a door. We did not seek planning for changing the door to a pull-down garage-type door. My lawyer (ie me) advised me that it was exempt. DCC has done very little on EV charging, and it continues to charge for on-street parking while charging. I have zero reliability on any public EV devices. We hire a car when travelling out of 40km radius.
Greg Allen, Co Dublin
I live in Dublin 8, with on-street parking and an EV. I charge my car using the public charging stations and they are so busy that we often have to charge the car at 11pm. If I’m lucky I might get a charging spot in work once a week if I get there before 7am. When you have on-street parking you are not eligible for a grant to install a home charger, which seems like a real policy gap. Some people near us have installed chargers and use a mat to run the cable over the pavement when charging, which I think is entirely reasonable but which some neighbours complain about. It’s not easy to charge an EV in a city location. Ironically, EVs are really well suited to city driving. I cycle where I can, but a car is handy for groceries or for getting the kids to soccer practice on time after work.
Aisling Kelly
Co Dublin
[ Germany might have solved Ireland’s urban EV charging problemOpens in new window ]
My wife and I each have plug-in hybrid cars but often find that the latest ESB high-power chargers are out of service. This week alone I found the chargers at Carnmore and Charlestown were out of service. When I call the ESB E-cars helpline I am made to wait ages to get through to a human, before being told that they can’t help me. Even worse, sometimes the helpline number on the charger is out of date.
