Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Can the Minister be more specific about when be believes this will happen? I was looking over the programme for Government, which was written in 2011. It states: "We will double funding for home energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes..." I have tabled a question on the rolling out of the pay-as-you-save retrofitting scheme. Again, the programme states: "We will work to promote a greater appreciation of the co-operative model as a distinct form of organisation...including in areas such as...energy retrofitting, environmental protection..." and so on.

The Minister mentioned two or three examples, but that does not seem like a great delivery on those commitments. On the other hand, as we have discussed at length in the House, we have had big industrial wind turbine projects that have faced substantial opposition, some of which are floundering now. There was a commitment in the programme for Government to put a focus on the smaller local renewable energy projects based on co-operatives and so on, but, save for the two or three examples the Minister has cited, there does not seem to be much delivery. It seems to me that we need to move faster and far more extensively on the matter.

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