James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am interested in the citizens' dividend the Minister mentioned. I have an interest in the area of microgeneration where citizens erect their own solar photo voltaic generators to power their own homes and business, which is what I think the Minister was referring to. There is also a concept of offset whereby they can contribute back to the grid where they produce excess energy. This has been very successfully achieved in Germany and Portugal in recent months. They actually achieved negative pricing at one stage. The utility companies might not be too happy about that but it works very much for the consumer. I was informed by a constituent recently that the microgeneration scheme run by the ESB had been withdrawn. This individual had a number of panels on his roof and was benefitting from participation in this very beneficial scheme. It goes back to citizens and their obligations and opportunities to benefit from this technology. I ask the Minister to look at that and, in particular, the withdrawal of the service by the ESB with a view to bringing it back on stream.

See this speech in context