Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Donnelly for her presentation. It was very useful. I have some questions that I prepared before she made it. Some of them might have already been answered. Then I have some questions about what she has said today if that is okay. The questions I had earlier were based on the Citizens' Assembly presentation. I could be wrong but my take on what she is saying and on the pitch she is making is that it is the citizen's responsibility. I think the problem we have here is that the Government is not taking its responsibility and we need to shift that balance. Whether or not it is the citizen's responsibility, and citizens do have a responsibility to buy into the system and to make it work, the Government has a responsibility to take the actions to allow the citizens to do that. The problem we have in Ireland is that citizens are way beyond the Government and want to make change and make things happen. However, the Government is holding them back. What we have here is a Government that does not make decisions or make things happen to allow us then to go on. That is what we need to focus on in this committee: how we get the Government to do things. What Ms Donnelly said in response to the questions earlier was very interesting. All the examples she gave relate to Europe and to governments being proactive in facilitating citizens to make these things happen, whereas in Ireland we do not have a proactive Government. I do not feel that we do in any event. I could be open to correction. I am interested in how we get the Government to face up to its responsibilities and actually put in place the measures that will then allow citizens to do what Ms Donnelly is talking about. That is where we need to focus.

As an example, Ms Donnelly, when referring to the Citizens' Assembly, mentioned in response the German bank KfW and what it is doing in facilitating homeowners. As an aside, we have recently had issues regarding post offices and how they can be maintained. One of the proposals from Irish citizens is that KfW would be facilitated through the post offices to provide finance to citizens. The Government has shot this down, is saying "No" and is pushing the existing bank system in through the post offices, with the exorbitant interest rates with which citizens cannot live, so it is the Government that actually has an awful lot to do. That is one side of the matter. I will get to my questions and then Ms Donnelly can come back.

I have a couple of questions. Rural areas are badly affected by both high energy costs and fuel poverty, so many people, including farmers, do not have ready cash to develop in retrofits or complicated projects. The oldest and least efficient oil and gas heating systems are located in rural areas. What is the best way to make renewable energy and renewable heat an integral part of rural life and to ensure that it is there all the time? Ms Donnelly mentioned how agricultural co-operatives in the Netherlands have been successful in setting up community anaerobic digesters, solar PV cells and so on. What financial incentives and grants are available from the State to facilitate that? Ms Donnelly also referred to the two key barriers to renewable energy in Ireland, namely, the lack of a feed-in tariff for small-scale householders and the very slow roll-out of smart metering. Could she explain a little about where the reluctance lies in the context of allowing this to happen? What are the barriers to making it happen for householders?

Ms Donnelly also referred to offshore wind capacity and addressed it somewhat further in her previous response. I ask her to expand a wee bit on the barriers to that, where those barriers lie and how we can overcome them.