Charging points for government-owned electric vehicles should be adapted so that the public could pay to also use them.

The idea was floated in Tynwald this week after Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer revealed that some of the charging points it had installed were for government vehicle use only.

Bill Shimmins (Middle) asked: ’What is stopping the Department of Infrastructure applying the Pod Point app to those charging points so that members of the public can actually avail themselves of those convenient charging points and pay for the electricity that they use?’

Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer said the Manx Utilities Authority had the lead role in rolling out charging points for electric vehicles.

’Where the electricity is provided to government vehicles there is no ability directly to charge, whereas the public-use charging points provided in partnership with Manx Utilities are equipped with payment technology,’ he said.

However, the minister said he would hold talks with the MUA about whether there was an ’ability to be smarter with how we work’.

In response to an earlier question about the DoI’s policy on charging points, Mr Harmer said it was to install them on government sites ’to support the roll-out of electric vehicles across government’.

In addition, it was working with the MUA to introduce more charging points available for public use.