Mr. Michael McCarthy:

When I was Chairman of this committee in 2014, we had long and arduous discussions in this room around the issue of climate change legislation. We found unanimity in the end and published a report which was widely welcomed. I recall that the mantra at the time was that the clock was ticking. It is now 2018 and we are edging ever closer to 2020. In terms of the deficit where we miss our targets, we have a very strong and viable position in the Irish Solar Energy Association. With the rapid deployment of solar projects, all depending on the outcome of RES, we could put 2 GW on the system. Ours is the only technology which can provide new generation by 2020 in terms of planning, grid and rapid deployment. A critical issue for us is the manner in which RES, once its gets the green light and comes back from the Directorate Generation for Competition in Brussels, focuses on the auction aspect of what is intends to do. We have argued consistently for a technology-specific process which is key to ensuring we get new generation for solar and a native, viable solar industry up and running.

We have published our own documentation on community participation proposals which is available on our website. In the context of popularising solar, we have a strong case around rooftop solar to complement the large-scale, ground-mounted projects some of our members have. Rooftop solar is the way to create the energy citizen. In effect, it democratises energy and allows people in their homes and businesses to generate their own electricity. I welcome the fact that there is a role for the SAI in the RES document to develop microgeneration schemes. That would be huge and useful to popularise the technology. KPMG compiled a report a number of years ago on a brighter future which looked at many aspects of what solar can do for our economy not only in terms of foreign direct investment, but also in terms of job creation. This was against the backdrop of a country which had seen its unemployment rate hit almost 16%. It is now, thankfully, down to 6% and there is an ambition on the part of Government to see the figure reduced to zero. With a strong and viable native solar industry, we can contribute, according to a conservative estimate, approximately 7,300 jobs per annum. For every €1 invested in solar, there is a gross value add of approximately €3.

I welcome the fact that we are having a wide ranging discussion with other significant stakeholders in the industry at the committee today. To deploy solar and meet our 2020 targets, time is of the essence. The sooner we get a policy support mechanism in place to see the advancement of large-scale, ground-mounted and rooftop solar, the sooner we can get the industry going to help to meet our climate targets.