Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am well aware of the Minister's concerns about ensuring that those who use electricity, both domestically and commercially, have rates that are tolerable, do not damage their capacity to live in, heat and light their homes and premises and do not impact negatively on businesses, but Ireland is obligated to meet the EU's target of 16% of all energy being generated from renewable sources by 2020 and it is essential that we continue to grow our renewable capacity. Currently, we are nowhere near meeting out 2020 targets. The Minister knows that 27.3% of electricity demand was met by renewable sources in 2016, of which wind accounted for 23.2%. It would be foolhardy of the Government to continue its reliance on onshore wind energy, given that it does not guarantee security of supply. Instead, we should branch out and expand our renewable portfolio to include offshore wind, biomass, tidal and solar, where possible.

There is little State financial support for those wishing to construct commercial solar energy facilities. The main renewable energy schemes are the new retrofit programme and the alternative energy requirement. The Government has been stalling on the details of the former for months, which it is now anticipated will be launched in late 2017. While costs have decreased considerably, industry experts agree that large-scale development of solar capacity is unlikely without State support. I appeal to the Minister to get the scheme up and running as quickly as possible. There is a trade-off with the potential cost to users, but we must meet our targets, given that the cost to the State would have to be paid by the taxpayer anyway if we failed to meet the targets.

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