Mr. Michael McCarthy:

I will be brief. There is a significant issue here. As a trade association, we have had a very strong engagement with various organs of the State. We are grateful for that. At an overarching level, we recognise that the renewable electricity support scheme includes a solar pot of 10%. I ask the committee to send a statement to the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and his officials about the need for this to be increased. That means 300 MW of solar, but 1.7 GW is ready to deploy right now.

A number of other issues, including the issue of barriers, have been raised. The export tariff for rooftop solar is a critical issue for creating the energy citizen. This is a significant issue for the CRU and for ESB Networks.

We expect to have some engagement with the Minister of State, Deputy English, and the Department on the planning submission this side of Christmas. We expect that because we have had a very productive engagement to date. The urgency is now more relevant than it was some time back.

We are thankful for this committee, which was born out of the Citizens' Assembly. It is very important for us that a multiplicity of stakeholders have bought into an all-of-Government action plan on climate. The infrastructure of the State must be improved to accommodate the deployment of solar energy.