Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask about the promise on page 35 of the programme for Government to prioritise the development of microgeneration, letting people sell excess power back to the grid by June 2021. I wholeheartedly support this objective which was proposed by my colleague, Teachta Brian Stanley, in the form of the Microgeneration Support Scheme Bill 2017. This Bill had cross-party support but unfortunately the legislation fell with the last Dáil. We need to incentivise the use of microgeneration equipment such as household wind turbines and solar panels so they will be more affordable to ordinary homeowners. We spend too much time incentivising industrial wind turbines that are a blight on our landscape and have little benefit except to foreign pension funds and foreign government bodies such as the Norwegian company, Statkraft. How does the Government propose to deliver on that date, as promised, which is just nine months out?

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