Mr. Michael Manley:

In respect of micro generation, our system of energy, particularly electricity, is changing significantly. Twenty years ago, a monolithic ESB did all the generation, transmission and retailing. Unbundling and bringing in new actors in the supply and generation of electricity have been the key issues over the past 20 years. The next step is in the clean energy package. It involves bringing the citizen and community into that space. It will require an enormous amount of work. We are looking at it on a number of different levels. In the RESS, we are looking at the scale production of energy and trying to find a way to put communities into commercial projects. The RES provides for mandatory participation and systems to do that. That is on a commercial scale. There will be smaller schemes that we envisage will be community-led. We are looking at how we can support those and how we can look at models of giving early support finance so people can come together, get their ideas together and work them out. How can we put expert supports in there because very few communities anywhere in the country would be able to say "what about design, construction and finance?" and ask how to take long-term finance on board?

Micro generation is on a smaller scale. This is where people can put solar panels on their roof and spill it in. This raises significant questions about equity. Italy had significant problems this summer. There was not that much electricity demand on sunny Sunday afternoons, there was a lot of solar power, it was spilling into the grid, commercial generators were losing revenue and they were looking to see to how they recover that. These are not insurmountable things. We must try to design a market that accommodates all of that. We will not be recalcitrant. We talk about a clean energy package and it tends to be focused on the renewable and efficiency objectives but there are four market instruments as well which, hopefully, will come to the Council this December. Article 16 of the electricity market directive states that communities are entitled to own, establish or lease community networks and autonomously manage them. Article 21 states that communities are entitled to generate renewable energy, including their own consumption, and store and sell their excess production of renewable electricity. Article 22 states they are entitled to generate, consume, store and sell renewable energy. We must legislatively bring those into operation in Ireland. The deadline is 2021. It will change profoundly how we do things. The steps we are taking at the moment are only a start. Many people are happy to get grant support for micro generation while others want to be much more actively involved in the market. We want to design a market that welcomes those who want to be active in the market and the many citizens who are quite happy not to be involved. The European consumer bodies have been very active at this level and have pointed out that consumers are busy people. They are trying to get to work, care for children, get child care and do all the things they want to do. Some will be very interested while others will not so that will be a pretty complex market.

With regard to the question about farmers getting involved, there will no badges saying that farmers need not apply. Is a farmer developing on their own land a commercial developer and, therefore, in the commercial pot or are they working with their community so there is broader support and, therefore, they are in a community project? We have met some of the community groups and had this discussion with them. When is community commercial? If a number of businesses come together, is that a community or a commercial project? We must work these things out.