In Fingal, council plans roll-out of 14 EV-charging points this spring

As Fingal County Council rolls out public electric-vehicle charging points this spring, most of the first 14 are planned for the eastern, coastal side of the county.

Inland, there are plans for two in Swords, plus one in Castleknock and one in Lucan.

The council’s plan is for work on these 14 new charging points in council-owned car parks to begin in February, and for them to start going live in April and May.

That’d be a good start for this scheme, says Green Party Councillor David Healy.

However, the council should also take a look at installing charging points at the car parks outside its own buildings in Swords and Blanchardstown, says Healy.

Those car parks tend to be empty at night and over weekends, Healy said. “If people could park their cars overnight, they can be slow charging and that should be cheaper too as well,” he said.

Not all EV owners are happy, though, with the strategy the four Dublin local authorities are pursuing, to focus on providing public charging hubs.

These are welcome, says Richard Molnar, but it’s a big county and drivers might still find themselves far from their nearest charging hub.

So the council should also be looking to support EV users who want to charge at home, Molnar said.

“It should be easier and quicker to let people install their own chargers in front of their homes regardless of whether that area is public,” he said.

But the charging strategy drawn up by the four councils favour big hubs where people can rapidly charge, and sees neighbourhood charging as a last resort.

A spokesperson for Fingal County Council said that it will be prioritising fast-charging capabilities at the locations in this initial roll-out.

A Dublin-wide scheme

The roll-out of these first 14 EV charging hubs in Fingal is part of a Dublin-wide effort to install 200 charging points in 2025 and 2026.

The four Dublin local authorities announced on 11 October that, following a tendering process, Irish company ePower had been chosen to deliver the scheme.

Of the 200, there are 50 planned for Fingal.

At a 17 December meeting of the council’s Climate Action, Biodiversity and Environment Strategic Policy Committee, council climate action coordinator Ronan O’Reilly presented some details.

The first 14 are planned for Quay Street in Balbriggan, Baldoyle Racecourse, Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Centre, South Strand Street in Skerries, the Donabate-Portrane Community Centre, Lusk Sports Hub, Howth Harbour and Echlin Court in Rush.

Malahide is getting two. One in the town park, the other in Bridgefield Car Park.

Further inland, Swords will see theirs being built in River Valley and the Liam Rodgers Community Centre. Further west, there are plans for two more, in Porterstown Park, Castleknock and St Catherine’s Park, Lucan.

A spokesperson for Fingal County Council did not comment when asked why a majority of its chargers were distributed among the more coastal towns, while the Dublin 15 area was only receiving two.

Still, Ciaran McLarnon, an EV user in Dublin 15, says the first 14 charging points sound like a good start.

“Porterstown Park is close enough to me, but they need to do something about the access,” he said.

The entrance to the car park is very narrow, McLanon said. “It gets clogged up,” he said. “But if they do a bit of development on the entrance and exit to the car park, it would be an ideal location.”

The council has been engaging with the ESB Networks to establish a timeline for the provision of the necessary electrical supply for these, O’Reilly said. “Most sites have been surveyed and site designs are being developed and agreed at present,” he said.

A spokesperson for the council did not provide a timeline for the installation of the next 36.

Car parks in areas like supermarkets and community centres are classified as “destination” charging points and were highlighted as a key focus of the Dublin Local Authority Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy report, published in June 2022.

The report, authored by consultants Element Energy, notes that these would be a mix of slow and rapid charging points.