Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everybody back. There are not many of us. With all the goings-on and things not working out right, I want to draw attention to something positive coming out of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Finally, the Government will have the microgeneration payment coming back again. Many years ago, quite a few people took up the whole idea of solar power and making electricity themselves, which they could sell back to the grid. Unfortunately, a couple of governments ago that was stopped, but thanks to the hard work by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and his colleagues in the Department, we will see that, by July, people will be allowed to sell electricity back to the grid again. We are hoping for up to 30% of the electricity in Ireland being owned by the people and the community, which is a real move towards just transition and climate justice. First and foremost, it will bring down a person's electricity bill, and because we do not have the whole storage aspect of electricity nailed down, what often happens is that solar power is created and works in a person's house but the rest goes back to the grid and the person does not paid for producing it. Now, thanks to this new progress, from July onwards a person will be able to get paid for that and the money can go towards his or her electricity bill.

I was doing some numbers around it and looking at my own electricity bill.Almost half of our energy is still being produced by fossil fuels. We have a long way to go. When one pays one's electricity bill, all of that money goes out of one's home, pocket and community. There is now an opportunity for people to keep that money in their pockets and communities. I have been working with local groups to look at the church, the school and the hall with a view to getting solar power photovoltaic energy, in particular, so that the community can make money itself, sell energy back to the grid and power the houses and schools in the area. Schools often have to fundraise every year to pay their costs. Schools are closed for the summer when they could make the most electricity. The positive news is that we can create our own clean energy and get paid for it, which is great. It has been happening all over Europe and perhaps we will finally be like Scandinavia and own the energy. I saw a programme that Duncan Stewart did on this issue in Austria, perhaps 15 years ago. It is great to see us finally catching up.

This issue also ties in nicely with all the work that is being done around retrofitting, particularly in social housing. The first thing we want to do is to reduce our energy demands before we look to produce the energy to meet them. I feel positive that the Government is finally moving in the right direction, rewarding people financially for being greener and enabling them to make money out of it. We need to make sure that there is a just transition away from fossil fuels. This is important, especially for rural dwellers who have space, roofs and garden sheds. This is a positive move. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, is taking on a lot of new staff to help communities and individuals get grants to take this positive step for the country.