Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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47. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the person or bodies overseeing wind farm development across the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38629/16]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Despite frequent rhetorical commitments by the Government to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the 2015 report on emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency was damning. It showed that overall, emissions were increasing by 3.7% and that emissions have increased under every single major heading including agriculture, industry, transport, the energy industries and manufacturing. Does this not suggest that the huge emphasis that has been put on industrial wind as a way of developing renewable energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a serious failure and a waste of money? Who, exactly, is looking at it? Given the huge investment in industrial wind and its centrality to our renewable energy plans, who exactly is in charge of wind and ensuring it is reducing carbon dioxide emissions?

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The energy White Paper presents a long-term strategic vision that is intended to guide the direction of Irish energy policy from now until 2030. At its heart is a commitment to transform Ireland into a low-carbon society and economy by 2050 and reduce the country’s fossil fuel dependency. The programme for partnership Government also commits to reducing our import dependency while maintaining energy security and affordability, and reducing energy related emissions.The development of renewable energy in Ireland via a range of technology specific supports is one of the best ways to encourage this transition and diversify our energy generation portfolio. This is why my Department introduced a renewable energy feed-in tariff, REFIT, scheme across a range of different renewable electricity technologies, including onshore wind, hydro generation and bioenergy. A new renewable electricity support scheme which is currently under development will seek to further diversify this technology mix.

While my Department provides the high-level strategic direction and policy supports to encourage renewable energy development, a number of separate agencies and bodies have a role in the promotion and development of renewable energy projects in Ireland. For example, the development of any renewable project, including wind, requires planning permission from the relevant local planning authority or An Bord Pleanála, as appropriate. Planning permission is a matter between the developer of a renewable project and the relevant planning authority, subject to the planning Acts. Under section 7 of the Planning and Development Act, each planning authority must maintain a detailed register of all planning applications and decisions made. An Bord Pleanála also maintains a register of cases determined by the board, which is available at

A renewable energy project also requires an authorisation to construct or reconstruct a generating station and a licence to generate from the Commission for Energy Regulation. Applications for authorisations and licences are assessed by the CER ahead of the granting or refusing of an application for planning permission. The conditions imposed by the Regulator must be met by the generator, and compliance is monitored by the CER on an ongoing basis.EirGrid and ESB Networks have a role to ensure that projects can connect to the electricity network and that the renewable energy project can be operated securely on the network for the benefit of all consumers.

The legally separate but interrelated regulatory, planning and operational decisions that are needed to realise a renewable energy project in Ireland requires the involvement of the agencies I have outlined.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The litany of different people responsible for different aspects suggests to me that nobody is in charge of the overall plan regarding wind energy. This is the problem. My starting point is deep scepticism about industrial wind and the emphasis we are putting on it regarding reducing carbon dioxide emissions, which are not decreasing but increasing. We produce 22% of our electricity from wind and 80% of our renewable electricity is due to come from wind. Wind energy producers are getting approximately 80% of public service obligation funding. That is a lot of money, put up by the public. The Minister can confirm the figures. Who is deciding where the money, which is being paid by ordinary people and which does not seem to be delivering results, is going? Where is the overall strategic environmental assessment of the wind energy plan? Where is the cost-benefit analysis as to whether industrial wind is the way to go?

I am deeply sceptical that it is the way to go. Many people say its net impact on reducing CO₂emissions is negligible and that we should be looking in different areas to develop more efficient forms of renewable energy that are better for the environment as well as looking at public transport, insulation, etc.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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First, it is not 80%. I do not have the figures to hand but I will get them for the Deputy. We have a number of peat-fired power stations that also avail of supports. It is something that is as close to the heart of Acting Chairman, Deputy Eugene Murphy, as it is to mine. A transition is taking place to biomass there also. On the point Deputy Boyd Barrett makes on CO2 emissions, there are two important reasons to move to renewable energy. One is the need to address emissions and meet our climate targets, but the other is energy security. That is as, if not more, important, in particular in the current climate in regard to the changes in political geography of some of our nearest neighbours. They are issues I have to be conscious of as Minister with responsibility for energy as well as the issues I am responsible for as Minister with responsibility for climate. Coming back to the core point the Deputy makes about whether we are going in the right direction, it is a debate I have had with my officials in the Department. We are asking if we have the right suite of options. While we are proceeding with the renewable heat incentive scheme, we are also going to determine what renewable energy sources we should be looking at into 2025 and 2030. We are now going to carry out a review of the current renewable energy policy.

If we achieve our 2020 targets on renewable electricity, and it is likely that we will, we will have 75% of our electricity at peak wind production coming from wind, which is a variable energy source. It is known now as "the Irish problem" and to go beyond that is very difficult from a technical point of view. All these issues must be considered in that context.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is exactly the point. It is an intermittent source which still requires us to have other sources. There are serious questions. Wind Aware Ireland, of which, excuse the pun, the Minister will be aware, suggests that, at best, wind can only impact approximately 3% or 4% of our emissions. Nevertheless, a massive proportion of the public money going into renewables is going into this area which seems to be having a negligible effect on CO₂emissions while serious questions arise in regard to the cost-benefit analysis of industrial wind as against a greater emphasis on insulation, passive house standards, free or heavily subsidised public transport to get people to use the system, afforestation, solar and all sorts of other areas. A focus on those areas would have a far bigger impact in terms of both energy security and reducing CO₂emissions, which we are not doing terribly well on.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I find it interesting that the Deputy is making the argument he is. I do not disagree with it because my focus as Minister at the moment is on deep retro-fits of homes. That is why we have €100 million to focus on that in 2017, to deal with energy efficiency and to consider the suite of energy technologies that are there. I got grief earlier on from Deputy Dooley for not going down the electricity generation route. What I am trying to do is to strike a fair balance in regard to the suite of options available to us. Deputy Boyd Barrett is right that there is significant progress we can make on energy efficiency, which is my focus. I am in Tallaght later this week to speak on that very issue, which is important.

The strategic environmental assessment is the reason we have to delay the publication of the revised wind energy regulations. We have to go through the new strategic environmental assessment. I am not sure about the 3% or 4% statistic the Deputy cited in regard to wind but I note that as part of the DS3 programme, it will be possible to improve the carbon efficiency of wind. Hopefully, we will see other options in regard to the storage of wind-generated electricity.