Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new responsibilities, wish him well in his position and welcome him to the House. I would like to pick up on a number of points made by Senator Bradford. Good ideas have emerged in this debate but progress will not be made on them without the necessary political push. I remember a time when grants were awarded for work carried out to houses that the State wanted done. We had a long discussion on planning yesterday, an issue in which we are all interested. Would it not be a good idea if certain initiatives were tied to planning granted for single unit housing, given that many people object to the building of such units? What would be wrong with a decision at national level that every single unit house development — any person building a house on his or her own site — would be required to provide a solar panel for water heating? That would not be an expensive inclusion in the cost of building a house. While it is expensive to fit retrospectively, it would be a reasonable provision when building a house. Every new house should have a 1 KW wind energy generator on the roof.

The Minister of State correctly said that it is difficult to gauge the use of wind energy. The reason one cannot depend on wind energy, according to the ESB, is that for every watt that is potentially produced from wind energy, one must have an equal amount waiting in storage for the day the wind is not blowing. The way one deals with this is to have wind farms all over the country. Some 90% of the time there is wind blowing some place in Ireland and if the wind turbines are interconnected and we look at the 90% of the potential which will always be available, this could be tied into the grid.

People will say that the other big problem with wind farms is the cost of connecting up to the grid and the establishment of a substation. Senator Bradford spoke about farmers. If farmers were encouraged to install single, old-fashioned 500 wind generators, those generators, as far as I know, can connect straight into the grid without a substation. That is something that farmers, in particular, could do. In the past couple of months I have spoken to people from the IFA who feel that it is something worth developing. I spoke to a man from the IFA from the Minister of State, Deputy Browne's, county who has been investigating that particular matter. He was one of the beet farmers. The Minister of State probably knows the man; I cannot recall his name. He was dependent on beet and he is certainly working on that particular issue at present.

I am sorry I missed the beginning of the Minister of State's speech. Approximately six months ago a decision was taken whereby the regulator would not accept any proposals for connection to the national grid for the next two years. Unless there is a good reason for it, that is regressive. It should not be happening.

A grant should be available for people who put up a wind generator and a solar panel in their homes, as long as they are properly fitted and will save us all money in the long term. We should have a strategic policy to be energy independent within a certain number of years. There is the Government's commitment to increase green electricity to 13% of total consumption by 2010. That is a worthwhile goal. Despite the fact that many of us had doubts about this three years ago, the Government is to be complimented on moving this forward.

I ask the Minister of State to take this point and I do not mind being quoted on it. While I would consider myself to be a conservationist and to be greener than most who label themselves green, it is utter selfishness for people to object to wind farms on the basis that they might spoil the view for a few of us living on the east coast who take trips to the west. It is such an environment-friendly kind of generation. It does not hurt the environment. It does not create any pollution. It is completely clean. The only difficulty is that it spoils the view. We should make a decision that we can live with that as long as it is done in a controlled way. I would hope that that comes under what comes under what is being published today in the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill because wind farms are a crucial part of our strategic infrastructure for the future.

The development of energy from biomass and wood pellets has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past couple of years. Many farmers who are experiencing difficulty in growing crops and getting adequate prices should be encouraged to diversify into biomass, in the form of growing trees that will be cut down and used for wood pellets, in those counties where that can be done efficiently and where a market can be created for them. As many Senators have stated already, energy based on ethanol, rape seed oil and various other oils should be encouraged as well.

I would also ask the Minister of State to keep a close eye on the question of excise duty. As far as I am aware, the lifting of the excise duty was done on a temporary basis. It should be made clear that duty will not be reapplied for this reason, so that people can plan. I have spoken to farmers, again in the Minister of State's part of the country but not in his county, in the south-east, who are involved in the creation of biodiesel. Their problem is they cannot get farmers to commit, particularly after the beet debacle, to change their entire operation to get into the development of this area in the fear that the civil servants over in Merrion Street will reapply the excise duty in a couple of years time. The Government should at least state it will not be touched for another ten years so that people can plan and get into it. These are reasonable and sensible suggestions.

We can justify many of the single house developments if we tie in certain measures like wind energy, solar panels and the other system which has not been developed in this country in recent times, micro-hydroelectricity. We all learned 20 or 30 years ago that we have harnessed the vast preponderance of what is available in hydroelectric energy. While that was the truth of it, new efficiencies have been created in this area with new micro-hydroelectric generators; even quite small streams and rivers can feed energy into the national grid. I saw what was available on Google and they exist in all shapes and sizes.

We should have a structured approach to wind farming. The Government made a change in that regard in the Finance Bill three years ago to make it more difficult to develop wind energy and other alternative energies. We should put that back the way it was previously and we should encourage people to get involved in this. This is our security. I note that the main part of the Minister of State's speech correctly looked at the security and independence of our fuel supply. That is of significant importance and there is no gainsaying that. That we have gone into amber territory on a number of occasions recently is worrying. If we are to become independent of other countries——