*Charging points installed by Lahinch Golf Club.
A CRITICAL shortage of EV chargers in tourist destinations is causing mass frustration amongst visitors to the county, a county counillor has outlined.
Cllr Shane Talty (FF) called on Clare County Council at its July sitting to “urgently roll out a plan for enhanced availability of public EV charging facilities. Particularly around our tourist destinations where visitors are left battling over scarce EV chargers”.
Appearing at the meeting via MS Teams, Cllr Talty voiced his concern over the issue, noting that “The ZEVI programme started in 2022 and we are now four years into it with no discernible change in available public charging points. While the national conversation promotes the change to EV vehicles for financial rewards, those choosing domestic holidays in Ireland, staying in Airbnb’s or smaller boutique hotels that haven’t been retrofitted, are finding themselves very frustrated by the lack of public chargers”.
“The project has been ongoing for four years, and we are talking about a potential rollout over the next three or four; it is just way too big a gap. It looks like a clumsy approach to bundle five counties together into a pilot that doesn’t seem to achieve much”, Cllr Talty stated.
In her reply to the motion, Carmel Kirby, Director of Service for Transportation, Climate Action, Environmental and Emergency Services, identified that the immediate priorities of Clare County Council were understanding “charging needs in towns and villages”, providing “community charging hubs” and the installation of “destination and rapid charging locations for residents, businesses and tourists in key locations”.
Adding his support, Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) commented, “Throughout the county electric car sales, have nearly doubled since the crisis in February. We need to be confident in the network. We only have two chargers in Miltown Malbay and sometimes they don’t work, sometimes only one is working which is a major challenge. It’s a public necessity”.
Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) echoed these sentiments and offered a North Clare perspective, acknowledging the difficulties faced by the hospitality sector as a result of the shortage. “Regarding the hospitality sector, we recently had guests staying at a hotel in Fanore that had to send guests to travel down to Lahinch to get their cars charged because there was nothing available closer. We could add value by adding charging points to the projects we are already doing”.
Cross native Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) voiced his support for the motion, reminding those in attendance that he had had a similar motion at a Municipal District meeting over a year ago. “Where we live on the Peninsula we have about 20 or 25,000 people coming into the general West Clare area. I have a business man onto me who opened a café in Carrigaholt and keeps asking ‘Why don’t we have a charging point yet?’”.
Lack of reliability is the main issue regarding existing EV chargers in Clare, Cllr Rita McInerney (FF) maintained. “The real problem is that the chargers we do have aren’t working. There are continual outages in Kilrush and Kilkee. I’d like to get an update on what ESB’s commitment is to ensure that the ones they have are working in the first place”.
