Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I wish to speak on this Adjournment debate to discuss a matter of national importance, namely, the urgent need to conduct a feasibility study into making my county town, Carlow, the first green energy town in Ireland, in order to advance the implementation of the targets set out in the national bioenergy action plan.

This is especially important in light of the need for an indigenous fuel supply, concerns with peak oil, the consequences of climate change, and the need to meet our Kyoto targets. The national bioenergy plan has an ambitious target of 33% for renewable electricity by 2020. It sets a bio-fuel target of 5.75% for road transport fuel for 2010, and a target of 5% renewable share in the heating sector by 2010.

My home county town of Carlow is ideally placed to establish itself as the leader in renewable energy among towns across Ireland. I call upon the Government to initiate a feasibility study to explore the possibility of developing local value chains for renewable energy systems on how to heat large buildings in Carlow by biomass and by using microgrids connecting buildings that are close to each other, and in using district heating systems. Using these methods, Carlow could become a renewable energy town linking in to local energy resources to develop biomass and other projects. In so doing, Carlow, in tandem with public private partnerships, could attract many new businesses and become the giant of the renewable energy sector in Ireland.

By leading the field in this vital sector of renewable energy, it could create sustainable employment and numerous new renewable energy enterprises. This format could allow Carlow to work towards being totally self-sufficient in renewable energy, renewable heat and liquid bio-fuels generated from local sources. This is particularly important in the light of the recent closure of the Carlow sugar factory and could give enormous competitive advantage to farmers in Carlow and the wider area of the south east to grow energy crops for bio-fuel and biomass.

The county has a skilled workforce and with forward planning, in tandem with the extensive research facilities at Oak Park where Teagasc has its headquarters, this could develop many new business enterprises allowing the town to offer incoming businesses a most attractive package of reduced energy costs.

This innovative idea is not something I have dreamed up myself. It has been pioneered in Austria in the town of Gussing. This town was located in one of the poorest regions of Austria but it has now become one of the wealthiest. Carlow has a tremendous opportunity to replicate this success. In 1988 the municipality of Gussing set a goal to replace its €1.3 million spend on imports of oil, electricity and other fuels with renewable energy supplies from locally available resources. This is something I want Carlow to be able to do. In 1990 a decision was made to fully phase out fossil fuel. Today, Gussing is an autonomous renewable energy city for electricity and heating needs. The needs of Carlow could be met by growing our energy crops and by having a good vision for renewable energy in the south east. Carlow, with its excellent road network, good rail infrastructure and its vibrant and dynamic workforce simply needs a kick-start from the Government in the area of renewable energy technology.

Carlow has recently experienced job losses in Lapple Ireland Limited, Irish Sugar and other businesses. Our proud county town is eager to commit to renewable energy technologies and with our extensive land bank, expert agricultural sector and supportive local authority with its own dynamic bioenergy programme, in tandem with Teagasc, I put forward this concept that Carlow, the second smallest county in Ireland could become a giant of the renewable energy sector. I call upon the Government to initiate this feasibility study to promote the concept of Carlow as a green energy town, in the national interest.

In my five-year term in the Dáil, I will press this agenda hard and wholeheartedly in the hope the Government can come up with a resolution to my idea.

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