Call for e-car sites in Fingal

Fingal County Council has been criticised for not securing more public e-car charging points in the Dublin 15 area.
Dublin West’s Green Party representative and local election candidate, Roderic O’Gorman, is questioning why the local council has not secured any public electric car (e-car) charge points from the ESB for Dublin 15.
ESB is providing about 1,500 charge points for local authorities across Ireland but Fingal has yet to allocate any for Dublin 15. E-car users in the area are concerned the council is losing out on the ESB allocation of public e-car charge points. Currently there are three power points in Dublin 15 located on private properties at Coolmine Train Station, Castleknock Hotel, Hutton and Meade Ballycoolin.
Speaking to The Gazette, e-car user and member of the EV [Electric Vehicle] Owners Club, Michael Sherlock said: “I work as a community mental health nurse here in Blanchardstown and I could certainly do with access to the likes of public charge points in the area that I could utilise throughout the day to recharge the car especially during the winter.
“It’s not an issue in the summer but in the winter you use a lot more power with heat on and things like that.
“There is no public charge point at all in the Blanchardstown area, a street charger or anything like that, yet when you look at rural Ireland, I am from Tubbercurry in Sligo – a small town in the west of Ireland, yet they have a double charge point in the town.
“Small places like Kinegad train station, Leixlip have one in their train station but Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 has absolutely no public charge points.
“Castleknock Hotel, in fairness to them, they have installed two private charge points outside the hotel doors, which is fantastic.”
According to Sherlock, it costs little or nothing to charge a car, saying it is around 50-60c for 7-8 hours.
“It costs me about €1.50 to charge the car from empty at home on night-rate electricity. I do an average of 30km driving around Blanchardstown a day. I could easily get two days over the summer on that.
“A lot more people are starting to pay attention [to electric cars] because running costs are so low, they are thinking about it and looking into it.
“We need charge points in and around the greater Blanchardstown area – maybe Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown Village.”
O’Gorman said this infrastructure is essential for the long-term viability of the e-car project.
“While there are currently three charge points in Dublin 15, all are on private property, which limits their accessibility.
“This contrasts significantly with the number of public charge points across the north county area of Fingal,” he said.
“I’ve written to Fingal County Council to find out what has been the total take-up by the council of the initial allocation of 1,500 public charge points by the ESB and further, to see how many public charge points does the council intend to locate in the Dublin 15 area and where will these be placed”.
A spokesperson for Fingal County Council confirmed that discussions were continuing with the ESB regarding suitable locations for charge points in the Fingal area.
The ESB has identified a total of 18 points throughout the county with four in the Dublin 15 area.
“A number of meetings have taken place with the ESB to identify suitable locations. These discussions are still ongoing.”