Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I strongly support the amendment tabled by Deputy Ryan and commend him on introducing it. One of the big disappointments of the recent Green Paper on Energy was that it did not contain any reference to micro-generation and the application of smart metering systems. Many critical areas in energy were not dealt with in the Green Paper but I hope that will be remedied subsequently. I will have some harsh things to say about the Commission for Energy Regulation on subsequent amendments. I was heartened a few days ago when the Commission for Energy Regulation published its arrangements for a micro-generation consultation paper which, at least, began the discussion at a formal level of micro-generation here. The disappointing aspect of the consultation paper is that it shot down the development of spill net metering. I have received e-mails and telephone calls from citizens all over the country who are disappointed that CER seemed to take the wrong angle on this just as the debate was starting. It looked at the options in the report in terms of metering and mentioned, for example, net metering, non-interval import-export meters, interval meters and smart meters. It appears to be concerned at any impact on larger generators. Therefore, it comes down against what would have been an attractive option.

This side of the House has put forward a number of proposals for a more distributed electricity network for encouraging householders to begin to look at micro-generation. I saw the advertisements in B&Q recently for solar panels and other domestic generators. Commerce is way ahead of the Minister in this regard and, certainly, the United Kingdom has begun to go down the road whereas all we have received so far is a negative consultation paper from CER. This simple amendment to facilitate full value net metering below 5 kW is reasonable and could start us on the road to an effective micro-generation network and encourage householders and businesses to take responsibility for their energy needs.

I said at one of our committee meetings that Thomas Edison, the great inventor in electricity, foresaw a distributed network of electricity generation and usage throughout America. Perhaps the wheel is beginning to come full circle. This is an area we should encourage. I second the amendment.

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