Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill and thank Deputy Alan Kelly for accommodating me. I commend Deputy Stanley on bringing forward the Bill, which I intend to support. There is a great deal that could be achieved nationally through small-scale microgeneration. If the Minister went to Germany, he would see that many farms generate their own electricity. There is a facility there whereby those farmers can sell their electricity to the grid. While some small turbines are made in Athenry and there is a pig farm in Kildare which is generating electricity, the big problem in Ireland involves the stumbling blocks that are put in front of microgeneration. There seems to be an attitude in this country that bigger is better.

Big investors will get everything thrown at them but the small ordinary person does not get any incentive or does not even get a chance to get in on the game.

If we look at the likes of Germany, in all of the farms, regardless of whether there are cattle in a shed, they are able to take the gas out of it and use it for generation. I was across the Border near Banbridge and I looked at a digester that was using all grass and it was working very successfully. Farmers were doing that in their local area.

An argument is put up by the electricity companies to say they cannot judge what people will bring in or produce. To be honest, it often cannot be judged what wind generation is bringing in. It is not that there will be a major amount of generation happening when people will be using it themselves in the first instance. I do not buy the argument of talking about what we have signed up to for 2020, but the reality is that we lost 240,000 young people from this country and thankfully we have over 2 million people back working again, so we probably signed up to stuff because we did not know where we would be in ten or 15 years' time. A lot of information is going around about what people will and will not be paying but this should not be about that. This should be about giving incentives to people, especially in rural areas, who could help generate electricity and also help to give them money. Solar panels have helped to give houses hot water in parts of the country where they were put up. As Deputy Ó Cuív pointed out, that helps in places such as the Gaeltacht where there are students. In general they have been pretty good but not enough of them can go on a roof to provide for a house's electricity.

There will be unanimous support for this around the House. We need to make sure that we do not always talk about the problems and the reasons we cannot do something. We need to look at how we can do something. This Bill needs to be supported. I attended a meeting last night with communities who are seriously worried about these monstrous turbines, the guidelines and the setback distances around them because people do not want big monstrous structures around them.

In looking at the microgeneration that is happening around the country with people who are probably before their time in going out and investing in it themselves, they are trying to move things forward but unfortunately, they are not getting the supports at Government level that would be given if they were foreign investors or something similar.

I urge the Minister to support this Bill and let it proceed to Committee Stage. I acknowledge that different electrical crowds came before the committee and they seem to be putting a little block in place but anything can be surpassed with pressure and with governmental pressure especially, that can be resolved. People right around this country can contribute an awful lot. I support the Bill and once again I commend Deputy Stanley.

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