Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will take that question on behalf of the Government and I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. This is something he has been advocating strongly for and it makes total sense. It is something the Government is pushing as a key priority. Within my Department there are grants for solar energy, which are available to farmers to invest in and generate energy for their farms. There has been a good uptake of that but it is something we want to progress further. Key to that is the work the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is doing on the feed-in tariff. There is tremendous potential at farm level. Farmers can make a contribution by generating electricity on their farms, getting paid for that, improving their profitability, contributing to energy security and reducing emissions. This is something the Government will be stepping out and we will be looking at ways in which we can deliver that and make it work.

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