Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I assure the Minister of State I have been down to Wavebob more than once and spoken to the people there. They have been fighting for support. They have been passed out by Pelamis in Scotland in wave energy, which is already connected to the grid there and is powering thousands of homes in north-west Scotland while we are sitting on the greatest wave energy resource in western Europe and are not harnessing it. That is a fact the Minister of State should take with him and think about.

Senator Butler referred to west coast local authority areas. The next time the Minister of State is in the west he should have a chat with the local authority in Mayo. It is pleading with the Government to change the legislation so it can make available to the rest of the country its plans for harnessing wave energy and tidal energy and build a 500 MW output wave energy farm in Bellacorick. All that depends on decisions being taken by the Government which are not being taken. Let us get real and look at what is really going on.

The climate change committee of this House was the first to produce a Bill which had all-party support and it presented it to the Government. It was to ensure issues such as wave energy, offshore energy farms and energy generators of all types could be brought ashore. They cannot currently be brought ashore because there are difficulties about who owns the foreshore, who is entitled to develop it, planning and many other issues. The Government is sitting on the issue.

The Minister of State referred to advances in research and development. This week the UK Government decided to make advances in photovoltaic solar panels. It is the way forward, just as wave energy is. Ireland is the best placed country in Europe to take advantage of photovoltaic solar panels. What support is the Government, through Sustainable Energy Ireland or any other agency, giving to the development of photovoltaic panels in this country, a source from which we can be assured on a bright day we would be able to obtain energy which in turn could be fed into the energy grid system, which is crucially important?

The Minister of State spoke about the smart metering experiment which is due to begin at the end of next month having been promised for three or four years. I am delighted, as one of those who asked for this, that it is finally going to happen. This should come into play with the support of micro-generation use by households so that photovoltaic generators on the roofs of Irish houses can feed into the energy system.

The Spirt of Ireland scheme while a good idea is nothing knew. The problem with it, in terms of its presentation, is that it is not necessary to do all that is suggested. The wind energy aspect of the Spirit of Ireland scheme could be commenced tomorrow morning. This would help to deal with the storage issue. Other projects that could assist with the storage issue are the development of electric cars, the most efficient storage mechanism available, and the interconnector bridge. We do not have to wait until enormous hydroelectric lakes are built in order to make this work. The three interconnectors - one to the North of Ireland and two across the Irish Sea - when in place will ensure we can at all times export our excess energy. There is a huge amount that we can and must do.

As regards broadband, the reality is that we have dropped down the scale. The European figures show that in terms of advances in broadband we are way behind. We are also falling behind in terms of next generation broadband. These points are being made on a weekly basis by delegations attending the Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security. The fact is that we are way behind in terms of storage. We have not yet had a debate in regard to how we would use micro-generation or how we can take advantage of tidal energy in places such as Achill Sound, Blasket Sound and the Shannon estuary. Approximately four or five knots of water flow at least twice a day on the tides in all of these places. The same is true of parts of the Irish Sea. These are issues that can be addressed. The reality is that most tidal and wave energy is silent and does not affect navigation. While wave energy may affect it, tidal energy does not. Much depends on how it is harnessed.

There is much to be done. I hope the Minister of State has some understanding of where I am coming from on this issue. I have spent many years speaking on this issue, trying to get Government interested in it. We have fallen behind in research and development and in terms of progress. While I support the efforts of Sustainable Energy Ireland, SEI, it took it a long time to support the development of wind generation domestically. Many of the difficulties in terms of dealing with planning related to domestic generation of more than ten kilowatts have not yet been addressed. There are decisions that could be taken by Government tomorrow morning in terms of the Foreshore Act, connecting to the grid, micro-generation and wave and tidal energy. The classic example is Wavebob which the Minister of State visited. The Polamis project off the west coast of Scotland is currently connected. We should have been ahead in this regard. Just as we have fallen behind in terms of broadband we have fallen behind in terms of the development of wave energy.

There is much that can be done. The Minister of State should ask the Mayo county manager what are the delays in establishing the 500 megawatt wind energy for Bellacorick. As the Minister of State well knows, 500 megawatts would be one tenth of our peak demand and this could be produced in a couple of fields in Mayo. There is a great deal we could do tomorrow morning.

Every third level institution in this country should be undertaking research and development of nitrogen fuel, which is the future. There are already in existence nitrogen cars yet we are doing no work in this regard. The Minister of State said we have many bright people. We should be giving them work to do on research and development and should provide fellowships in every one of our colleges in order to make this happen. There is a great deal that can be done. We have fallen well and truly behind in many of the areas referred to by the Minister of State.