Mr. Dudley Stewart:

We can be supportive in this discussion as we have great evidence to bring to it. This is evidence we have acquired through State funding. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland have always been aware of the importance of power quality and power reliability in Ireland. We have always operated on the basis that we must find solutions that allow us to exploit local willingness and ability to solve problems without compromising the grid.

Going back to the question the Deputy asked regarding south Dublin, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland funded the smart grid test bed in south Dublin. South Dublin provided the main underpinning for that project. One of the biggest outcomes has been the development of district heating. Data centres' waste is being exploited for heating purposes. In that context, South Dublin County Council and the test bed were aware that utilities were looking at the issue of supplying power into that area. It is natural to try to supply power as locally as possible to take pressure off the grid. The State saw great value in this and Europe put €30 million into what is probably the fastest growing district heating scheme in Ireland arising from waste heat from data centres. There was a lot of community involvement from the whole south Dublin area. Despite all this, it took more than two years for South Dublin County Council to get its voice listened to with regard to having the maximum export-capacity connection charge be zero because there was no interest in getting involved and solving the problem. When the issue of generation came up locally, there was no attempt to link that generation to district heating schemes. Generation involves waste heat in a very big way. The best way to use waste heat is in an urban area. The best way to deal with that is to deal with communities. That is microgeneration and that is the very point we are making. Microgeneration is not about tiny rooftop solar generation.

Microgeneration is about people being able to solve their problems in their own way. This is the European Community model, not an idea that MEGA is putting forward. We have evidence that it took a long time to get connections to the test bed, that the utilities completely ignored the test bed and refused to get involved in it even though it was funded by the State. That test bed went on to win for Ireland the first EU Lighthouse City in Limerick, using technology developed without utility support in Tallaght, but with the support of TU Dublin and other universities in Ireland and other communities.

The evidence suggests that there is not a willingness in Ireland to embrace the fact that we have to involve other people in the solution of the energy problem, even though it is common sense. We have spent a long time treading the path trying to make clear to everyone that this should but uniting rather than dividing us. The days of empire building in utilities is long past. We are moving to a decentralised age where digital information systems are empowering for individual consumers. People can become more active in this area. This is important if we want a society that is happy with its governance rather than a society that is falling apart, as in the case of France.