Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone in the House for their support tonight. I am aware that the Government has said it will not oppose the Bill, and I welcome that, but I also do not want the Minister to bury the Bill.

Climate change is here and we have huge obligations to meet. We know we are not going to come within an ass's roar of it. At best we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1% by 2020, instead of the minimum of 20% that we signed up to. We are facing huge financial fines and there is a moral pressure on us. There are small islands in parts of the Philippines that are being washed away. Part of the Inishowen Peninsula was nearly washed away last year.

The term "domestic" was used in the debate but there is no legal definition for that power output with regard to microgeneration. There is a definition used by the ESB but it differs substantially from the definition used in Northern Ireland. This can be used here. We can adopt it to use for farms, buildings, schools and small businesses.

Bmw Solar in Laois tells me that it has 40 small companies that want to put up solar panels but they cannot because of existing roadblocks around planning, feed-in tariffs and access to the grid.

This Bill would assist rural development. Without a doubt it would put funding into rural towns and villages. I welcome the delegation in the Public Gallery tonight from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, who have shown a particular interest in this. I welcome that they have come to the House tonight to sit through this debate. They see this as an income stream for farmers so they need not rely on single products. They look to see what else can add value. They have taken this sensible approach and I commend them on it. We want farmers and small businesses involved, alongside households.

The legislation needs to be strong. We take the points that were made about the market share of the suppliers who must provide tariffs for microgeneration. There is an unpublished report from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland that says the potential in microgeneration could produce one fifth of Ireland's electricity. That report was not published but it is there in black and white.

I will now address some of the points made by the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan in his speech. I welcome that the Government will not oppose the Bill, but I do not want him to bury the Bill by stealth using a money message. The Minister of State also said that the Bill does not provide information on potential costs to the Exchequer. We have to design the scheme. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, knows, because he has been around this House for longer than I have, that in reality one cannot design a scheme in detail in a Bill. Sinn Féin is not for throwing money at projects that are going to fail or are doomed. We want to come up with solutions here. That is what we are trying to do. The Minister of State said that the Bill does not include any evidence or indicate the level of proposed tariff. Again, the legislation is not the sensible place to set out the level of tariff. That needs to be worked out separately. I do not believe that detail should be in the primary legislation. The Minister of State, Deputy Phelan said that for those reasons "the Government recommends that the Bill would undergo detailed scrutiny by the Oireachtas to discover the full cost of the proposals". That is a very elastic way to deal with it and it could be stretched as long as one wanted. I ask the Minister, Deputy Bruton, as the new Minister in the job, and I ask it sincerely, are we going to use taxpayers' money to pay huge fines for not meeting our international obligations? Are we going to use taxpayers' money to buy tax credits? Are we going to continue to use the public service obligation levy on fossil fuels?

Alternatively, will we use it in a sensible way to put money into projects, for example, in my constituency of Laois-Offaly where Bord na Móna is being run down? It is changing. Many householders will need to generate an income by other means, as will a lot of small businesses. We should grasp and use this opportunity and see it as a challenge to turn things in a different direction. I refer to section 4 of the Bill which will give the Minister huge powers, for example, to draft regulations that may be revised and contain a minimum contractual price which a supplier must offer to microgenerators. The Minister can set the minimum length of the contractual term of the tariff and amend the reference to applicable microgeneration equipment to allow for the use of new technology in the generation of electricity.

We are trying to take on board what the Minister said in a constructive way, but I want him to let the Bill proceed to Committee Stage. There are too many roadblocks in the way of microgeneration. We should look at the position in Germany. The Germans do not throw money to the four winds; neither do many other northern and southern European countries. The system is too restrictive here in seeking planning permission for placing solar panels on domestic houses. Grid connections are difficult to make and there is no feed-in tariff. I refer to the model of the Tipperary Energy Agency. We need to look at what it is doing and involve the other 34 local authorities. We must move from being a laggard to a leader when it comes to tackling climate change and the use of renewable energy resources. We have shown the way with the plastic bag levy and recycling. The Minister and I remember being told 25 years ago that the public would not embrace recycling. It has done so and now we are one of the leaders in Europe. This is not a challenge for next year or the year after; it is a task for now.

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