Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for accommodating me. Our guests are extremely welcome and we are delighted that they are here to make their presentations, which were very interesting. I ask for their forbearance in that I will leave but I will read their responses to my comments. I am interested in this issue, as are the people who I represent. I will read more detail on it. I congratulate our colleague, Deputy Stanley, for his input and interest. I have five questions or comments. I would appreciate the witnesses' understanding that I lack technical knowledge and they can elaborate on matters in layman's terms insofar as it is necessary in response. I am a believer in microgeneration and think it is the way forward on many fronts. One of the significant matters is that if people are involved in microgeneration, it gives them a buy-in to the entire carbon reduction project. They get ownership of the project. It becomes their project and they feel pride in what they have done for it. They start to put moral pressure on others and to feel a right to speak on it. They expand their involvement with it from that position of making their own tentative steps, getting further into it, and it becomes a lifestyle. Support of microgeneration is crucial.

I know there was not a lot of focus on small wind turbines, given the expense and planning difficulties, but I am very interested in their potential. I compare them to the creameries at the end of the 19th and early 20th century.

At that time the local creamery became a focal point for the regeneration of communities and modernisation of agriculture and society. It was very important in societal evolution here. This also is a critical time and I see similarities between now and then. We could have small wind turbines owned by communities which are supported in the ownership of them. That could have a crucial educational buy-in value and I would like a comment on that possibility.

The big problem is that there have been slow financial returns for microgeneration. People do not like the idea that it takes seven years to free up the cost of their solar panels. The slow return is a problem. I take the point that the more use is made of them, the more cost is driven down because costs will fall as more units are produced and we have to try to achieve that. How do our guests think we can keep it attractive while capping output? The point was made that there must be a capping of output so no one person could exploit the system or use their output wrongly. I am not sure there is a big need for that. Could our guests explain the issue of capping and the level of use that a family or community could take from microgeneration, as well as the level at which they could make money? The way to get buy-in is by reducing the price of inputs and increasing the return for consumers. That is how to make them attractive and make people want them. What capping level would make it attractive?

Could our guests explain the minimum price tariff a little more? What would be an adequate minimum price that would be viable and attractive? When one thinks of the fines we will avoid, in broad terms, and the societal benefits, it is a no-brainer to try and do this.

The witnesses also should comment on the grid connection problems and how they might be overcome.

I am from the Cavan-Monaghan area, where there is much intensive agriculture and it is an important facet of our economic and social landscapes. I want to know about the digesters that could arise from intensive agricultural production, how those digesters could become a source of microgeneration, how the energy could come into the grid from them and how money could return to those people. There is a significant set of benefits to that. I am lacking in technical knowledge and knowledge of best practice in that area and I ask our guests to understand that. All I can say is that people I represent in that area would benefit enormously from digesters that could be economically viable with a good output.

I also raise the matter of linkage between waste management in individual households, communities and counties, and microgeneration. There should be a large, natural link because it is a means of overcoming two problems at once. I would like responses to that.