Mr. Seán de Buitléar:

I wish to pick up on the point on other energy co-operative models. They do exist and this is quite well developed in countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, in particular, and France. Earlier I mentioned we are involved in a project through to the stage two process under INTERREG IVB and we have partners in all of these countries. This is exactly the benefit of having projects such as these. We can learn directly from the experiences of those areas. They are similar in nature to regions such as ours. They suffer from depopulation and have many similar problems. It is hard to believe the Netherlands has issues with depopulation in rural areas, but it does, and it is similar in Germany and France. We can learn and benefit from their knowledge in establishing these co-operatives and seeing how they work and integrate. They do not only get a feed-in tariff in the Netherlands, they are also in a position to be able to sell energy to their members, so they get two bites of the cherry. This means there is a very good economic benefit for the community involved in the energy co-operative.