Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Government will not oppose the Bill and will support it. I compliment Deputy Stanley on bringing the Bill forward. I am very conscious of the issues around microgeneration. For many years beside me in County Leitrim, Jimmy Dowds and Miriam Sheerin of offgrid.ie run a company called Eirbyte on the mountain at Aughnasheelin. They run courses for people teaching them how to build their own home wind turbines. They also sell solar panels and batteries and so on. I have known them for 20 years and they are magnificent people doing magnificent work around all of that. They have often said to me that there is a day and night of difference when they go to other countries in Europe and see how this sector is embraced there compared with how it is embraced in Ireland. There is a sense in other countries of this is what we have to do, but in Ireland there are all kinds of obstacles, especially when it comes to the issue of the State being prepared to pay for people providing power into the grid.

I take the point the Minister makes, but this is not about microgeneration not being able to provide everything. We know that. It is also about recognising that we have to change the culture. Paying for microgeneration is part of changing that culture. There is an issue too in respect of major generation, which is the massive wind turbines and the huge solar farms. There is an opportunity for something in the middle. I think of all the farmers' large cattle sheds, the roofs of which could easily provide a very large base for solar panels. It should be one of the options for any new sheds that are being built. Some incentive - a carrot or a stick or whatever way it needs to be done - could be provided to ensure the roofs of the sheds are facing south and are available for solar panels to installed.

One of the big issues is about infrastructure, which is where we run into a problem. I am aware that many people have looked to put fairly sizeable amounts of solar panels onto a roof, and they then discover that they cannot actually feed it into the grid even if the grid was paying for it. The infrastructure is not in place. We need to look at all of that and see how it is done. It is my experience and I am sure it is also the Minister's experience that the vast majority of people are up for this and want to play their part. They want to do these things and put in solar panels. They want to provide electricity, for example, from the river that flows down at the back of their house if there could be some way of having a small hydro unit put in that they could use. They want to do it but they need the assistance of the State. I do not believe it is a huge cost because it is an investment that will pay back in the long run.

I will outline a simple example, which other Deputies referred to earlier, with regard to electric cars. I know many people in rural areas who would buy and use an electric car. While the range may be a problem for some people, the main reason the range is a problem is because there are so few charging points, and perhaps when a person arrives at the charging point, another car is there. This clogs up in people's minds. They think that if they buy an electric car they will not be able to get anywhere in it. This is because the infrastructure is not in place. It is not because people do not want to do it. This puts the issue back into the Government's court again to make sure it provides that infrastructure.

Reference was made to a money message. I fear when I hear that in any of these debates. It happens all the time when the Government brings up the argument that legislation will be a cost to the Exchequer, rather than it being an investment the Exchequer will have to make to get a return. That is how this Bill has to be seen. It is not just a financial return. The Minister spoke about the carbon sequestration and what we need to do about it, so this could be a return in that regard also. We have an obligation to ourselves and to future generations to sort out this mess. We need to be up for it and make sure that we do whatever is required to provide for the future. That is what we are doing. It is providing for the future.

This Bill is excellent. It provides a framework to start with. The Minister spoke about the issues he has with the Bill, but those issues can all be dealt with and teased out on Committee Stage, and they can be added to or taken from. We can do whatever needs to be done to ensure we can provide for the future. The future clearly is for people to be facilitated in doing what they want to do, for the good of climate change and for the good of the future.

I commend all the Deputies who supported the Bill. I particularly commend Deputy Stanley and Cathal in his office who has worked so hard to bring the Bill forward and to ensure we can bring it into effect. Let us hope it can come into effect speedily because time is not on our side when it comes to climate change.

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