More electric charging points are needed in Kildare

There has been criticism of the progress made towards providing infrastructure for charging electric vehicles in County Kildare, including at visitor destinations.

Cllr Peter Hamilton acknowledged that there is a lack of funding.

But he said actionable steps need to be taken adding “we’ve been bouncing this around for several years.

He said that people will go to places “if they know they have the charging opportunity.”

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He told of travelling a distance of 900 kilometres in Galway and Mayo recently  and there were a dearth of charging points. He also said that some private initiatives are very expensive.

The  draft electric vehicle charging infrastructure strategy 2022-2025 sets out the Government’s ambition regarding the delivery of a public electric vehicle charging network to support up to 194,000 electric cars and vans on our roads by 2025. This will be done at homes, residential neighbourhoods, destinations and on motorways and travel routes.

The strategy  sets out a plan for the delivery of each of these in the coming years, based on partnerships between the Department of Transport and a range of relevant stakeholders, including industry, private charge point operators, local authorities and “citizen drivers.”

KCC officials told a council meeting on April 25 that while the local authority has been in contact with the providers of infrastructure there is no budget to put these in place.

Ms Wright said that KCC would be guided by national policy and the availability of funding.