James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman, and ask him to let me know when I have a minute remaining although I do not intend to delay the Minister.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I was not here to hear his speech but I have read it. There are many good things in it and he touches on many areas of serious concern to many people in Ireland. As someone who moved to the countryside some 15 years ago to the brave new world of broadband which would enable us to transact our business, I soon found out that was very much not the case. We have made some progress but there is an awful long way to go. Even in places in north county Dublin, in Fingal, where I live, there are times when the broadband speed can make one pull what is left of one's hair out. There is much work to be done on that and I know the Minister is committed to addressing the issue.

I am struck by how, in our economic history, we have bemoaned our lack of natural resources in contrast to many industrialised nations. Now things have come full circle. We have the best economic resources available to us in our environment, between our seas, wind and the amount of solar energy available to us. The Minister has touched on many of these, and ocean energy is an exciting prospect for further investment, it is something that is largely left to the large multinationals and universities, where solar energy is something we can all avail of. There is also wind energy although with that there are added costs, with wind turbines having many moving parts and requiring maintenance whereas photovoltaics are a far simpler way to achieve energy here. There are many farmers who have land that is marginal, that may be good enough for grazing sheep but is certainly not good enough for tillage, who would very much like to get involved in this area. There is a significant problem with this because there are no Government guidelines for local authorities regarding applications for solar farms. I know of one farm in Fingal, in north county Dublin, that was refused by the local authority on the grounds that there were no national guidelines. I realise that the Minister here is not the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, but he sits at Cabinet and his remit is energy and I hope he will bring to bear his influence on this matter. I have raised it previously and will do so again when the relevant Minister comes before us on our energy requirements.

We talk about many of these things over which we do not have control, although Government. This is an area where there is huge potential and which people are keen to avail of but they are obstructed by a lack of guidelines and official action. That must be addressed. From an environmental perspective, this is a wonderful opportunity. People can still raise sheep underneath these solar panels and it is the cleanest of clean energy. It is a matter for the Minister, Deputy Ross, who will be before the House later. If one looks at the Oireachtas Library and Research Service's synopsis on the subject, when it lists the options to help Ireland reach its national EU greenhouse gas emission target, its first point is to increase the levels of renewable energy. This provides a mechanism. Even if people did not want to put them on their land, farmers have considerable roof space across hay barns and other sheds which could be exploited and we should encourage them to do so. We certainly do not want a situation such as that which exists in other jurisdictions where it has become all but impossible for people to do this, because of regulations. I will not name them but they are EU member states. I want to impress on the Minister the need for regulations in the area. There are many people who would be keen to become involved in solar farms or solar energy who, far from being encouraged, are meeting obstruction.

I also believe that we can do more to advance the concept of electric cars and give people confidence in them.The big issue that is holding people back from buying the cars is probably the range that some of them have, although that has been overcome, and the lack of power points around our cities. We need to address that issue.

I commend the Minister on his commitment to the post office service. I welcome the €30 million that has been approved by Government for that service. We need to look at other ways, besides those mentioned by the Minister, of sustaining our local post offices. The service has to be financially viable.