Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I agree fully with the Deputy. We should be getting to a situation where all our schools and public buildings have solar panels, insofar as is possible. This will feed into our overall reduction and climate targets but also will support our schools in reducing their costs. This is one of the biggest challenges we currently face in making sure we identify ways schools can reduce their costs.

It is heartening and welcome to see that 93% of the schools that are able to access the scheme have already expressed interest and a significant number of those are moving to tender phase. Less than 50%, which is still a high number, are at the stage where solar panels have been installed. I would like to see if we can expand the scheme further. As I said, we might look initially at fee-paying schools that cannot afford to install solar panels. That ranges from smaller to larger schools and they are not just in the Deputy's constituency but in other parts of the country as well.

I will engage with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, as the scheme is funded through his Department. It would be for the Minister to decide as to how it could be expanded but I am open to working with him and Deputy Ward to see if we can do that.

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