Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In regard to the PSO for the power stations, I recognise that reality. Until such time as we can supply them with biomass we have what we have. On the issue of the cost of solar, some people in the industry would question it. Other countries have more sunshine than Ireland and do not need sophisticated systems to get the benefit. We do have substantial sunshine and we have substantial potential. That area has not received enough attention from Government and the Department in the past.

The Minister of State is a fresh pair of hands in the job. He will receive the reports from his civil servants and the wind industry. I ask him to be his own person in regard to this issue. There are good examples of its success in London. London does not have that much more sunshine than Ireland. I lived in Edinburgh which is not the sunniest place in the world and it is much colder than here in winter. We should look at the examples from those areas to see how they do it. At the Select Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources this morning the Minister of State mentioned the example of Scotland. That is one of the issues he might discuss with them. We need to keep this issue to the fore and to broaden it out. There will not be one or two large sources, there will be thousands of generation plants, small, medium and large, in ten to 20 years' time.

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