Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I thank the Minister for attending the House for this debate. I commend my colleagues on this important topic for debate. As Senator Crown has rightly pointed out, this debate will continue in this House and in the other House for quite a long time because energy is at the core of everything. One of the exciting aspects of renewable energy is that we might have finally found a way of doing something useful with all that wind and rain and waves. In many ways, people in Ireland have engaged with renewable energy in a very popular way, in the pub, in the taxi, in the shop. People want to talk about renewable energy and everybody wants to do something about it. There was a great rush of enthusiasm when the expression first came into use. However, this must be balanced with the need for energy security, the need to develop the industry and the concerns about the impact on the environment. My colleague, Senator Kelly, has rightly pointed out the problem of the proximity of wind farms to ordinary houses and the issue of fracking, not least because it is in my constituency but it is a broader issue. There is a point at which those things become very close, the need to have energy security and the need to acknowledge people's concerns and the need to create jobs. Fracking encompasses these issues in a very formidable way and makes for a very interesting and difficult topic for debate.

I commend two projects, the Tipperary Energy Agency, which is doing an excellent job in heightening public awareness of the need for renewable energy and the need for sources of sustainable energy. Today the agency launched its green business network in an effort to engage with as many people as possible. The agency is trying to join the dots, so to speak, and to work locally. I also commend the Western Development Commission for its work on biomass and specifically its work on wood. I acknowledge the earlier comments about the problems with biomass in South America in particular. The Western Development Commission's projects are funded by the European Union and they aim to examine how the woodchip and boiler installation sectors can be used to stimulate job creation and to encourage forestry which would result in jobs in the haulage industry and would encourage the move from agricultural work into related areas associated with wood energy and woodchip. The commission is doing very good local work with community enterprise boards and with local authorities to achieve a concerted plan to create jobs in the west particularly in the areas of biomass and wood fuels.

While I welcome this debate and the motion, I have concerns regarding the difficulties arising for those who are investing in wind farms and find themselves obstructed from making progress. The Minister of State will be far more familiar with the expression, Gate 1, Gate 2 and Gate 3, than I am. In simple terms, if a community comes together and is developing a wind turbine project for the local community, they are now falling foul of the energy regulator. The regulator made his decision in December to curtail most of the Gate 3 projects because of the technical difficulties with the national grid. Projects were commenced in 2003 and 2004 and it takes significant effort to put a wind project together. The Western Development Commission did a project on the Killala wind farm to see where the snags arise when constructing a wind farm. One of the snags discovered - not least the problems with community relations, as mentioned by Senator Kelly - was that issue of the length of time of the project and the need to sustain the interest and capacity of the local people to cope with a project that takes a long time to develop. It is now the case that the regulator's office is pushing out these projects resulting in a significant problem with many projects which simply cannot get any commitment to go for an agreement to supply energy to the national grid. This is the very option desired from community level and from bigger companies. The projects are completely stymied by the regulator's decision. I acknowledge that the regulator did not act in bad faith but there is a serious concern that a number of these projects may not get off the ground in the years to come.

The notion of aspiring to use wind energy becomes somewhat ludicrous when one sees the detail of the reality. We need to hear from the Minister and from the regulator as to how this issue of the curtailment will be addressed. The other issue that goes with sustaining projects over a long period is the issue of funding. The banks are now backing away, big time, because there is not a firm commitment from the grid to take the energy. The projects cannot have a commitment from the grid because this cannot be given. Therefore, instead of encouraging the banks to lend to a sector which could then go forward and build on that enthusiasm and create those jobs, there will be a log-jam that will last at a minimum five to eight years and in reality will probably be 20 years. I do not have the answer to the problem, unfortunately, but we need to hear from the Minister and the regulator. Building wind energy in a realistic way is vital for this country.

The Western Development Commission also found in its research on the Killala Bay company that what was needed was what it describes as an impartial adviser to support communities to work with private developers or private wind operators so that they could speak to one another. The commission fulfilled that role with the Killala Bay project but there is nobody to do this work as it stands now. This is a point to be considered if we are to build sustainable energy. This is a very exciting time but it is also a time for urgent action.