Renua Ireland leader and Offaly County Councillor John Leahy has slammed what he calls "the failure of the government to meet its ambitious plans to ensure Ireland meets its carbon targets for 2030."

The party leader said, "this is epitomised by the failure when it comes to the provision of the simplest piece of infrastructure; fast charging points for electric cars."

"All this fancy talk of electrified rail systems and the end of the age of diesel are utterly undercut by the most recent figures that reveal that the number of fast-chargers for electric cars has increased by three from 77 in 2017 to 80 in 2018," he lamented.

"There are a further 800 standard charging points spread erratically across the country, but a full re-charge on those can take from one to eight hours."

"By contrast, a fast charge point can do the same task in twenty-five minutes. How can the government meet its so-called targets when fast electric vehicle chargers are as rare and as invisible as the corn-crake," he added.

"One of the main concerns motorists have about switching to electric or hybrid is the ability to charge up their vehicle without having to spend time looking for a charging point," Leahy claimed.

"Under the current system, however, it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even where there are chargers many are vandalised or un-usable."

"If the government is serious about climate reform it should be installing thousands of charge-points. An increase of three is risible," he continued.

"Someone should tell the government that, like diesel and our old-fashioned cars, electric chargers are needed if electric cars are to run."

"Instead, like rural broadband the great plan for electric cars exists in theory rather than practice," he concluded.