Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If one is going to support more than just wind, and I understand that is under consideration at present, one possibly could support solar energy and offshore wind. These are all things that can be considered. If a foreign direct investment company wishes to come here and be associated with a green energy generator, it cannot get any carbon credits for that under Article 19. The suggestion is that some other agreement could be entered into whereby the State is not fully paying the support payment and perhaps this other company could co-pay or there could be some type of contribution by the FDI company. I understand the rigidity of Article 19 at present but obviously suggestions have to come forward as to how to make it more flexible and responsive whereby one has the generation of renewables but one is also getting buy-in from FDI and there is more economic growth on the back of that.