Mr. David Dodd:

It is quite a broad question. At national level we have the national planning framework and at regional level there are regional assemblies that identify regional policy objectives for renewables, such as the identification of renewables zones. At local level there are the county and city development plans. There are also existing and future climate action plans to try to identify renewable elements. Speaking on behalf of the climate action regional office I work in, we have the benefit of working with Codema, which is an energy agency that has developed a regional energy master plan. It is being formally launched tomorrow and there will be a webinar on it. Codema works directly with the four Dublin local authorities to identify opportunities in heat and transport to find solutions that can reduce the emissions in those sectors. These solutions could be district heating in Dublin city from the waste-to-energy plant or from data centres in south Dublin. There is also the potential for offshore energy. Depending on the location there are other possibilities. For example, Ireland is certainly a laggard in using anaerobic digestion, whether it be slurry or food waste, compared with other countries in Europe. This is linked to the regulatory regime. There is no attractive feed-in tariff for the private sector and farmers to get involved.

There is a broad range of opportunities. In terms of local authorities it is very much dependent on the national regulatory framework that has been set to meet the targets, such as in terms of a percentage of renewables by a particular date. Deputy O'Rourke mentioned solar power. We are slow in this regard nationally. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, opened the first large-scale solar farm in recent weeks. The planning perspective is not an area that climate action regional offices get involved in. We were set up on an adaptation footing and have moved into climate action mitigation. With regard to this enhanced structure there is a need for wider capacity in terms of energy managers regionally and at local authority level to help drive the renewable transition. There certainly are opportunities that local authorities can avail of.

With regard to decarbonising zones, as Mr. Boland mentioned there is an opportunity for test beds for renewables and for public private partnerships. There is already an example of community-owned wind infrastructure in Tipperary. It took a long time to get through the system. We need to make community-owned energy opportunities much more streamlined. We need to reduce the time involved. In July there will be a package to allow domestic owners and people who have made investment in solar and micro-scale wind to get a feed-in tariff for excess energy.

These are all incentives that can help to drive us to meet our renewable targets. We are very much reliant on the regulatory system aligning to enable us to do so.