Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Gould for that contribution. I believe that concludes matters but I will make some concluding marks of my own to the Minister of State.

Following on from the point made by Deputy Gould on the roll-out of solar panels, the announcement of the solar panels for schools is a very strong measure. It makes a great deal of sense to help schools cope with electricity costs as well. They will also then have that feed-in tariff opportunity when the schools are not in operation. We also saw the figures for the roll-out of the energy retrofits for social housing, with those figures increasing and paid for out of the carbon tax.

The grants system works very well. The size of the system that somebody should put in their house should be based on the consumption within that house because I believe that is the best model one can have. One generates electricity and one uses it as close to source as possible. The figures from the MaREI research showed that a 2.5 kW system will pay back for itself within seven years. With the grant, with that sort of payback time, and with the increasing cost of electricity, that grant system makes a great deal of sense. This is being shown because there is such a very significant subscription to it out there and many of those companies are scaling up.

That will also bring down the price and we will see them across most rooftops in Ireland, which is only right because solar works very well here. The exemptions we have brought in are another positive move in that transition to a future of renewable and decarbonised energy.