Mr. Barry Sharkey:

I obtained it from an SEAI report, Ireland's Solar Value Chain Opportunity. The authority estimated that the photovoltaic, PV, market would be worth €341 million and that if we were able to build our expertise in that regard, we could capture some of the European market, which is valued at €4.5 billion. I have an article about a company in France that has won a contract in the state of Victoria in Australia for a wind turbine project. It is buying the wind turbines from Germany and the battery storage from the US. This is what the clean technology industry means. This is not impossible for Irish companies if we build up our expertise, but if we just build solar farms, close the gate without building up industry and expertise, that will not happen. I have been involved in this business for the past 30 years. I was winning contracts in Norway, Denmark, Spain and Portugal, buying in all the equipment and sending it and my technicians to those countries. This is what I mean by a clean technology industry and building up regional jobs in our industry. We must start small. People say the house of the future will be all electric. It will have electric cars, heat pumps, and cookers. I analysed what a future electricity bill will be and it will come in at approximately €3,500, which is a massive bill for every household. Every one of us gets an electricity bill. Some of us get two or three if we have a business, office or factory. We should examine how this bill can be reduced for people. I came up with an analysis that can reduce that amount by 40%. It can be easily done. I have not designed the system. It is being done in Germany. We should consider what is being done in Germany and Denmark. Denmark has the same population as Ireland and 18,000 people are employed in the clean technology industry while 100,000 are employed in Germany and more than 1 million in California. Our industry employs approximately 100 people.

Can I have one minute to show how an electricity bill can be reduced?