Flynn says Mayo competes with 'any county' regarding electric vehicle chargers

Local Election candidate, Peter Flynn, has said Mayo can compete with any other county in regard to access to electric vehicle (EV) chargers.

Speaking at a strategic policy committee meeting for the environment, climate change, and agriculture, the Fine Gael councillor said: “I’m lucky enough to have an electric car myself, and I’m a bit more tuned in on it then I was two years ago, but I find that Mayo, we’re quick to beat ourselves up and say we’re on the back foot compared to other parts of the country, but when it comes to the charging network in Mayo, we can compete with any county right now,” he added.

Cllr Flynn explained how he was recently in Dublin city centre, and the nearest charger was a four-kilometre drive away.

“Right now, I’m sitting in my house, I can get access to eight chargers within a half kilometre of where I’m sitting, two of those 100 kilowatt chargers, and the others 50, which mean you can get your car charged quickly.”

He continued: “I think from a business point of view, from a tourism point of view, we need to be highlighting what we have in terms of our infrastructure in Mayo right now, certainly we can improve on it, but right now compared to other counties across the country, we’re in the Premier League versus the championship.”

The topic came up at the meeting following a presentation by Tom McDonnell, acting regional co-ordinator at Roscommon County Council, on Mayo’s policy for EV charging networks.

As part of the plan, it is envisioned to ramp up installation to match the number of EV’s around the country.

He said: “The intention from 2025-2035, they will have facilities every 60 kilometres on the core network, and as time goes on, to ramp up the number of chargers at each point.”

He added: “On the regional side, Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) have developed guidance for local authorities to develop these strategies under this guidance funding will be available for regional strategies, they are proposing €40,000 per country or €100,000 for a region, possibly more if there were more than two counties.”

Councillor Sean Carey told the meeting that rural areas ‘need more’.

“I have a neighbour myself, he has only his own charging point, he’s concerned if he had to go on an urgent journey, he would be caught without charge. It’s a company car, but he also has his own backup in case he’d get caught.

The Fianna Fáil councillor suggested that community centres in rural areas have charging points. 

“The rural areas have community centres located in a lot of them throughout the rural county, and they should have a charging point that would cater for the local area,” he concluded.