Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas le Dara Ó Maoldhia, go háirithe as a chur i láthair. Nuair a bhí mé i gColáiste Mhuire, Marino, chaith mé mo thréimhse Ghaeltachta ar Inis Meáin. Bhí mé cúpla uair ar Árainn Mhór. Ní raibh mé ar Inis Oírr go dtí seo ach sin rud a chaithfidh mé a réiteach.

In the first instance, I wish to voice my support for pretty much everything that Deputy Ó Cuív said in terms of getting the Departments to work together in order to solve a number of problems at the same time. The argument seems to be a little bit like buying a toaster and then coming home to the kitchen and realising that a socket is required. We know the toaster is coming; we might as well put in the socket. We know that there is a massive energy opportunity on our western seaboard and our islands. Let us get the infrastructure in place. We also know that there is going to be great infrastructure installed. If we are supporting floating offshore off the west coast, at some stage a great infrastructure will be installed there or we will try to generate hydrogen on-site, in which case we will have a different sort of infrastructure. We may have a hybrid of the two. We know what is coming. There are huge opportunities there. One of the comments that has been made is that the islanders are dealt with in the same way as anyone else. This is a recurring theme across this unit of work that we are doing. We know that the island population is very small, and often fragmented. The number of special areas of conservation, SACs, that are there jumped out at me. An SAC in my home town of Tramore would actually be larger in size than all of the islands combined. This goes across the applications for LEADER funding, social inclusion and community activation programme funding and everything else. The islands should not be dealt with in the same way as everybody else. If the islands are dealt with in terms of population, they will never be reached. We know that there is a cultural value in terms of maintaining our island communities that should be given a priority.

I want to dig down into some of the points made by Mr. Ó Maoldhia on the microgrid, in particular. I am very interested in that. Of course it is a challenge - it is also a technical challenge - but there are major opportunities. I am interested in learning a bit more about the features that the co-operative plans to build in. I am particularly interested in whether the co-operative has looked at the idea of vehicle-to-grid technology. As Deputy Ó Cuív said, one of the things that one does not have to really worry about on islands is range anxiety. We know that the batteries in electric cars are sufficient to run a household for a reasonably long period. They have a good deal of storage capacity. One does not have to worry preserving the battery in the same way as a commuter with a long run ahead of them. I wonder whether the co-operative has looked at any of those issues. I know that there are some microgrids, in the Netherlands, for example, that have looked at that vehicle-to-grid technology. It is a storage solution in respect of renewables, but also a transport solution. Deputy Ó Cuív also referred to the planning exemptions for mid-size projects, specifically the rooftop solar or shed-top solar community projects. We have also been asking questions on the issue. We have been told that it is two or three weeks' away for the past I do not know how many months. It is something that needs to be resolved.

The landscape is changing very quickly in terms of the supports that are available, especially for renewables. I ask Mr. Ó Maoldhia to comment on whether he thinks that mid-size generation option is going to answer some of the island needs. Is it something that the co-operative is looking at?

On managing energy behind a transformer, yes we want to export energy, but I am assuming that the co-operative wants to keep most of the energy that is generated on the island as much as possible, or at least for the island to become energy self-sufficient as much as possible. Does Mr.Ó Maoldhia think we are moving quickly enough in that direction?

We are to the cutting edge in respect of green hydrogen. Perhaps policy has tried to catch up. I definitely think our ambition is there in terms of green hydrogen. Mr. Newsome delineated between the different colours of hydrogen. We are leading, or are close to the forefront, on green hydrogen, blue hydrogen and whatever else. The other possibility for storing that energy is through fertiliser production at the source of generation. I am not sure whether that is an avenue that the islands would like be going down. I wonder if it is something that they have looked at and considered.