The Green Party is calling for more charging stations for Electrical Vehicle (EV) drivers to be established in Ireland.

The party made the call after carrying out a survey which revealed 75% saw lower costs, however the lack of charging stations was the biggest difficulty.

Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan TD said: "It is clear from our survey that a revolution in Irish motoring is ready to take off. Drivers like their new electric cars, not just for environmental reasons but also for the lower running costs and better driving experience. Every car company is now promising new electric models and the battery range is growing at the same time as the costs come down. The era of the internal combustion engine is coming to an end.

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"To speed up the revolution we need to address the frustration many drivers have with the charging infrastructure that is currently in place. 38% of EV owners found a lack of charging infrastructure the biggest issue they experienced. Another issue EV owners experienced was 'ICEing' – when a petrol or diesel car is parked at a charging point.

"Ireland took a lead in rolling out the first national network of charging points but a lack of political commitment over the last six years has seen us fall behind. For the third year running the UK will have the fastest level of new EV sales in Europe. This provides us an opportunity as it will give us access to the latest models with a right hand drive specification and we can follow some of their policy initiatives."

(CD/MH)