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

We have to break those logjams and the job of the political system, which the Deputy would be aware of, particularly at ministerial level in our Department, is to break the logjam and to ensure our administrative system is able to deliver on the scale of ambition we have. The Deputy cited three things, one of which was onshore wind guidelines. We have to deliver those this year. It has been so many years between two Departments, but that has to be resolved and will be resolved this year. We have to get better spatial planning. We are seeing many counties effectively opting out of the renewables revolution. I do not know how they can do that, because if they do that, they will be opting out of other investment into their counties because the industries and jobs will follow the clean energy. We clearly have to deliver on the spatial planning. Third, the Deputy mentioned the example of the private wires. I believe there is huge potential for us to become more efficient. One of the key bottlenecks is in the grid development and building out the grid, and one of the advantages with private wires is that it helps us deliver renewables to a variety of different solutions and not just in the traditional model. It is sometimes frustrating and it can take longer than one would want but we cannot relent. As politicians, we must drive the administrative system to deliver those system changes. We have European law to back us up, the technology is there and is improving all the time but we do need to become quicker in this country at removing some of the blockages which would risk our world-leading position at the moment if we do not act fast.

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