Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I do not criticise Enterprise Ireland for supporting a technology company or a drone company. There are applications of drones that would be particularly legitimate. Why someone has to get a drone for a cup of coffee is beyond me. You need to walk around to the local shop and get your coffee, or make the cup of coffee, or green tea or whatever your poison is. I have to agree with the Deputy there. We need balance and perspective but we cannot all control human behaviour. There is an issue in terms of regulation. If it gets to a stage where there are 2 million flights, clearly there is a danger and a health and safety issue if nothing else.

Deputy James O'Connor raised the major solar installations across the country. There are competing issues there. The various climate reports show that Ireland is falling significantly below the targets in terms of the 51% or in terms of the European Union target. One of the most effective routes for us to try to achieve targets is through renewable energy, be it offshore wind, onshore wind or solar. There are competing interests against that. We are not achieving it at the level we should. Equally, agriculture is extremely important and is vital to local communities in its economic impact and so on. There is a third factor, by the way; private individuals' property rights are enshrined in the Constitution. That cannot be ignored either. There has to be a planning framework governing the use of land. There was a recent study done on land use in the context of climate change, which is a very significant issue. That will cause its own controversy when it is published towards the end of the summer. It will endeavour to say that some lands can be used for this and some can be used for that. It is not simple. However, at the moment we have an opportunity to get a regulatory framework in place. While it is growing, solar is not at any huge level yet. Rooftop solar is vital. That should be done and facilitated. Rooftop is improving dramatically. For example, at PepsiCo in Carrigaline, 25% of its plant is now done by its rooftop solar. I do get the point about whether, if it is very rich agricultural land, it should remain to be used for agricultural purposes. I envisage that in the future, in less productive areas, we need to incentivise more alternative revenue streams for farmers. We definitely need to do that into the future.

See this speech in context