'Progress plan for EV training centre or Mullingar will lose out on jobs in future'
The Mullingar Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) has renewed calls to progress the development of the proposed national electric vehicle (EV) training centre in Mullingar, in light of Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) figures which show that sales of EVs rose 109% in April compared to the same time last year.
The centre was announced for Mullingar in November 2023, and was put on hold last December.
According to the government press release at the time, “when fully developed, the centre will train people to repair and maintain not only electric cars, but also electric bikes, scooters, trucks, buses, vans and heavy goods vehicles”.
Last December, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science announced that the project had been delayed pending the establishment of new standards in Europe in relation to electric vehicles – which won’t be ready for a number of years.
The Mullingar SEC fear that jobs could potentially be lost for Mullingar.
RTÉ reported recently that both SIMI and Nevo, a dedicated electric vehicle platform, have pointed to the fact that there is a critical shortage of suitably qualified technicians to work on electric vehicles, and have called on more to be done by the government to bridge the gap in the short term.
That is backed up by James Bourke of Mullingar Autos, who told the Mullingar SEC that “the shortage of skilled and trained EV technicians is reaching crisis point and dealers in the sector will soon not be able to keep up with demand if the rise in EV sales continues as predicted”.
Underlining the importance of the jobs for Mullingar, Brian Browne, chairperson of the SEC, said: “The green economy should not be seen as a few jobs here and there that are additional to the ‘regular’ economy. The green economy is our future economy and acting now to secure thes jobs will put Mullingar ahead of the curve when it comes to future jobs in this area.”
He added that the demand for EV expertise is growing rapidly. “While we understand that alignment with European standards is essential, that cannot come at the cost of inaction and we must continue to prepare for the development of the national training centre and be ready to open it once the required standards have been agreed, not wait for the standards before building starts.”
Mr Browne said the training centre would support increased EV uptake, and serve as a catalyst for further job creation for the town and county.
A functioning EV training centre would signal that Mullingar is ready to attract investment, foster innovation, and support the growing green economy. He concluded: “Continued delays risk diverting this investment elsewhere.”
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