Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All of us understand and accept that we have vast future potential to harness additional renewables that will deliver price savings and stability in our energy market, which we need unquestionably, and help us to reach the exacting targets we have set with regard to climate. We saw very recently in some areas of the country how fragile our grid is to withstand very severe weather events. That is something we take very seriously as well. As the Deputy rightly said, we have committed in the programme for Government to intensify the transition to lower-cost renewables and electricity generation and continue the transition away from expensive and volatile imported fossil fuels. We will look at other potential funding models as well. We committed to doing that too. However, I have stated how central the PSO levy is to energy generation, particularly around investment in renewables. It is critically important and I would see that remaining a very critical part into the future.

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