Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I could speak for three hours on this subject. We do not pay much attention to hydropower. The capacity is not huge. We have built Ardnacrusha but there is capacity of between 1 MW and 2 MW on the River Corrib. This is consistent and does not just arise when the wind blows. The Minister of State also mentioned biomass and other renewable technologies. We must also consider biofuels. The biofuels legislation and certificates passed by this House is a good system and is recognised as such throughout Europe. Nevertheless, we need as much as possible to foster our own bio-fuel industry because it cannot just be based on imports.

I was very interested in many aspects of the Minister of State's contributions. Unfortunately, there is not enough time to refer to all of the issues raised. I am pleased that there is consensus among most of the political parties and Independent Members because this will be the way of the future. None of us can do anything to stop this because it will be exploited. However, it is important that we get it right, consider community ownership and doing things in the right way for the people, rather than to allow a situation to develop where all of it will be foreign owned. We need to take ownership to a certain degree which is what we are doing. In the lifetime of the Government we have increased our renewable energy capacity significantly. It now stands at 15% which is commendable and means we are on target. It is a good news story. I am delighted I have had the opportunity to take part in the debate.