Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome our guests. It has been a good engagement thus far. There have certainly been many good answers coming back from the officials.

I begin with the various schemes outlined in the opening statement. It is useful to hear how certain schemes are progressing. I caution against the use of acronyms because while I am aware that there are many schemes, we are trying to take people with us here and there is a lot of similarity between those acronyms. People could get lost. For the benefit of the committee, will our guests outline the difference between the community energy grant, the sustainable energy communities grant, the renewable electricity support scheme, the community benefit fund and the microgeneration scheme? I ask because some of them, as I heard in the opening statement, are ones people can apply for. Local communities were mentioned earlier in a response to one of the other members. Some of the organisations and groups have already come together. They are very familiar with making these applications and that is true. I am more conscious of the ones that are new to the whole idea.

Dr. Byrne also mentioned the community energy officers in his opening statement. Are they going to be there to assist with all these schemes or is it specifically around microgeneration? Are they there to assist the local authorities in delivering on the authorities' own plans? That is my first question.

Mr. Somers spoke about the renewable electricity support scheme. He highlighted there were parameters. I think he used the word "handcuffed" about European legislation on-----