Ms Avril Ní Shearcaigh:

I want to make some points or maybe add some additional detail to some points made previously. Yesterday I attended a focus group for the Irish islands run by the clean energy for EU islands initiative. That focused on identifying the regulatory barriers. As members can imagine, much of what we are discussing now was also brought up yesterday. The Department was represented, along with the SEAI, ESB, EirGrid and the islands were represented as well. One of the things that was brought up was the lack of progress on the interdepartmental committee for the islands, which I think was established in 2019. It was certainly under consultation then and perhaps because of the pandemic it did not progress any further than that. It is clear today there is a dire need for an interdepartmental committee for the islands, not just to deal with energy but all sorts of island needs and departmental areas as well. A core area of that consultation was around stakeholder engagement and engaging directly with island communities because some Departments, while they may have the best of intentions, can inadvertently overlook island communities. It is no good for Departments to be overlooking island communities interdepartmentally. There is a real need for stakeholder consultation and discussing matters with island groups to see what does and does not work because we are most aware of the challenges we face.

Aside from that, on the subject of green hydrogen production and utilisation we are currently involved in two European-funded research projects on that. Both come to an end this year. One of them is looking specifically at a case study for the ferry companies and we are looking at Galway Port. There is also a project under way in Galway port to develop a green hydrogen hub. As far as I am aware, it estimates it can produce up to 1,800 tonnes of green hydrogen per annum. This would be a huge boost and it is all looking at using curtailed electricity from the nearby wind farms in County Galway.

Outside that, the EU has highlighted islands through its clean energy for EU islands initiative, which we are all familiar with. Other countries around Europe have made specific funding available to their island groups that is not available to other communities. They have done this to support and enhance the ability of island communities to achieve their goals around the energy transitions. The Government can make similar funds available to island communities to address the challenges that are specific to us. I am aware there may be financing and regulatory issues but if other countries have been able to make funds available specifically for islands then I do not see why our Government could not do the same around the energy transition.

I submitted a response to a consultation by ESB Networks last year at the end of December. That consultation was under its piloting roadmap as part of the national network, local connections consultation. My submission outlined our existing assets on the island. At the moment we have about 300 kW of air-to-water heat pumps, 150 kW of PV, 185 kWh of battery storage and as Mr. Ó Maoileáin outlined earlier we have about 20 electric vehicles on the islands as well. All of these assets will allow us to, for want of a better phrase, flatten the curve of our energy demand and generation. In order to balance the grid there needs to be added flexibility, as I am sure members are aware, and these assets in such as small island grid would be the perfect opportunity to test the different technologies required. As the Chairman outlined earlier it could then be scaled up and replicated across the country. This was also reiterated at a workshop we organised in 2018 by SEAI but so far we have not seen any further development on that. The Government, if it wished, would be able to provide additional supports and a real focus on our islands to get us over the line. There is much great sentiment going around but unfortunately we are finding a lot of the roll-out of those supports is very slow.

One example of those is the SEAI community-enabling framework. The Chairman is correct that we have engaged with that programme and we have found it be very beneficial but it does not go far enough for projects or communities that are at the stage we currently are. We were issued our grid assessment in February, which means we have two years to get planning permission for our project, that is, our community turbine on Inis Meáin. If we do not have the planning permission by that time the grid capacity is released again and it may well be gone by the time we come back around with our planning permission. I do not believe two years is a realistic timeframe for any wind project in the country to get planning permission and certainly not one that is being community led. This is purely because as we do not have the expertise or the deep pockets developers have, things move at a much slower pace and there is very little that can be done to help that. For solar projects, two years may be feasible but in my opinion that limit is setting communities up to fail because I do not see how it is going to be achievable and certainly not on islands. For example, we could very well need to do a two-year bird study that straight away means we could not possibly have planning permission within a two-year period.

I believe the SEAI is in the process of rolling out and approving their financial supports for communities to finance the pre-development costs of generation projects. This is what we need at the moment. Our project and others that were successful in enduring connection policy, ECP 2.1 are now looking for funding for feasibility studies, bird studies, route surveys and all the rest that goes into your planning application. However, that financing simply is not there. We are being weighed down making LEADER applications and some very slow and onerous applications and waiting for decisions, all while the clock is ticking on that two-year period. While I appreciate the SEAI's supports are coming and understand they should be covering up to 80%, when I hear of the pre-development costs those supports simply are not there in time. It means communities that have gone without the support up to now are likely to not have it in time to meet their goals. I am wondering if there is any indication of exactly when those supports will be rolled out, in order to fund the pre-development costs of these projects.