I want to ask the Minister about the public electric vehicle, EV, charging network. I am aware there is funding for local authorities to install EV charging points and there is a public consultation going on at the moment. However, there seems to be some delay in the roll-out. I am not sure if the difficulty is at local authority level or in trying to get an ESB connection. Most of us would agree that the best place to charge an EV is at home or at the workplace, but we need a public network. Will the Minister outline when the public consultation process will be published?

I will have to come back to the Deputy directly as I do not have a date. I do not believe the ESB is short of ambition. Its recent new strategic plan includes real ambition in terms of the roll-out of charging points for electric vehicles and, actually, it was one of the first companies to have a national network, so we were ahead of the game on that. This is recognised, and it was commissioned by the London Transport Authority to roll out its network. I do not believe the ESB is lacking but it is important it gets funding and has the ability to invest in this. It is not just the ESB and there is a whole range of other providers across the country, as people with electrical vehicles will know. However, we need to scale it up. Obviously, the supply of electric vehicles at the moment is incredibly tight because of the shortage of chips and supply chain problems coming out of Covid, but that will be resolved sometime in the near future. Once that happens, we will see a massive expansion in the roll-out of electric vehicles and our network has to be ready for that. The local authorities have to step up too.