Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Working through the many things the Deputy drew attention to, the first is the solar scheme. I think he is asking what the €12 million will produce and what we will deliver from that. This enhanced solar scheme began in July of this year. Since then, €7.8 million has been spent and 36 MW has been delivered. I expect that if we are at the same ratio, if we do €12 million, we should have about 50 MW of delivered power. It is not just for industry and commercial; it is also on non-domestic, non-commercial buildings such as community centres and so on.

The demand for this is huge. When I go out and visit sites, such as recycling factories or supermarkets, I have not met anybody who tells me they are not doing a large programme of solar. Every major supermarket chain has assessed all of their roofs to see what solar they can put on. Often, it is not 100% but rather 40% or something because perhaps the roof is not strong enough to take the solar panels and, in strengthening it, you would actually lose the benefits of the decarbonisation. In other cases, there is not a roof, somebody is upstairs or so on. Generally, there is huge enthusiasm. Massive work is going on to deliver that. I am informed that one of the major factors in making the decision to put in solar was not the grants but the fact they do not have to apply for planning permission anymore. Therefore, the planning exemption was absolutely critical to that.

The Deputy also said we should promote the benefits of solar more to businesses, consider areas where there is low take-up and so on. I absolutely agree that we should look at that through the SEAI, and make sure we are providing the information people need. There is also an element of a trend starting. People see their competitor businesses are doing it. Solar installations are a very visible form of climate action. A person may see that the farm next door has solar panels on the roof and think they should put solar panels on their own shed. There is that trend effect that happens. We should make sure we are doing everything we can to promote it. It helps from the point of view of our energy security, it is energy efficient, it reduces the load on the grid and it gives people a sense that they are contributing and taking part in climate action directly themselves. It gives people a sense of ownership of what is going on and not a sense that all of this climate action and renewable energy is being delivered by large corporations and the profits are being exported elsewhere. People are genuinely taking part. The enthusiasm for solar is absolutely huge and much more than I expected.

The Deputy mentioned the possibility of separate compacts and I think he is talking about sectoral compacts, which is an area he mentioned before with regard to the circular economy. He would also like to see the circular economy plan knitted or in some way integrated with the climate action plan. Legislatively, they are separate. There is a legislative requirement that we produce a climate action plan and a circular economy plan or strategy. We are putting in sectoral targets. Sectoral compacts is a different idea. It is more voluntary or it is a scheme. We are putting sectoral targets into our next circular economy plan. Am I following the Deputy correctly?