Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If we take solar energy as just one example, we will be setting a target, as I set out in my convention speech two weeks ago, for something like 5 GW of solar-generated energy by 2025. That is as much renewable energy as we have ever developed in the past 20 years just in solar energy in the next three years, and this gives the scale of change.

What makes me think we can actually do that? First, we are seeing those renewable auction systems, and there is a series of them. We learn as we go through each one, refining and changing them. Indexation could be one example of where we might adjust and change.

I am confident that a very significant proportion - I cannot remember the exact figure but at least half - of the solar we need is already on-stream and coming through that auction process. We need to change and go further, including looking at the concept around private wires in order that industry might be able to self-generate at scale to provide some of the back-up power we need and, significantly, deliver that quickly within the next three years. We also need to change the rules on farming to allow up to 6 MW of solar power to be delivered outside the auction process in order that we do not get caught up in all the complexities of that. Every school in this country in the next three years will use the carbon fund to install solar panels. I could go on. These are real measures that will make a real difference to us meeting what is an incredibly ambitious target. That is what we are doing. That is what is happening on the ground in reality.

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