Mr. Michael McCarthy:

It is a very good question and the short answer is "Yes". I have no fear that we are insufficiently skilled in terms of the workforce required to build out solar here. We have many people involved in the sector with rooftop solar but with regard to meeting the aspirations of the action plan and the very serious demands that decarbonisation places upon us, it is important to begin at the macro level and remove the barriers that the Chairman has highlighted. Rooftop solar will create the "energy citizen" and democratise our energy sector.

We need to look at lifting the planning restrictions. My association met the Minister with responsibility for planning during the summer and outlined our position. The official line was that wind energy guidelines would dominate the thinking in the Department. The Minister made an announcement at the start of the week and we expect, perhaps this side of Christmas, that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government will make an announcement and take on board the different considerations we have. The planning system is fairly robust but we want a policy in place that is transparent and operative for consumers who want to enter into the space. It should also serve a responsible trade association that wants to ensure the highest standards in industry.

KPMG produced an independent report a number of years ago titled, A Brighter Future: Solar PV in Ireland. It considered all the scenarios for deploying solar power in Ireland and predicted we could create 7,300 jobs by deploying approximately 3 GW of solar power in the system. As the chairman has said, there is approximately 1.7 GW ready to go and we are awaiting the announcement from the Minister flagged on Monday. There is a solar pot but 10% of availability in the first auction, which we expect to run in June next year, is under-ambitious. We will intensively try to persuade the Minister of the merits of increasing that allowance. There are more than sufficient skilled personnel there. As a country we regrouped after the recession in the 1980s and the most recent recession to upskill and learn new trades and qualifications. I have no doubt we can do this again in the renewable sector, particularly on the solar side. We are ready to do this but we need the barriers removed in order to achieve that outcome.