Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Is lá iontach é. Sometimes in politics you wonder why you bother. There can be tough days. You get a lot of grief and sometimes it is hard. It is important to celebrate wins and today is a definite win. We have been fighting for this for probably 20 or 30 years. I remember being in a school 14 years ago. We were talking about fossil fuels, cars and energy savings. They have electric detectives in many schools that take part in the green schools programme. They have little badges and stuff and do monitoring using a thing called an owl to find out what uses the most energy, whether computers, kettles or fridges. The big energy guzzlers were the white boards.

The children were great at isolating the issues and they had traffic light systems, with green, orange and red, indicating who used the most energy and making staff and pupils aware. However, they did not have the solution. They knew what a solar panel was but when they asked to get solar panels they were told they needed architects, planning permission and fundraising. They were told schools were trying to get the hole in the roof fixed or raise funds for a school tour and it was hard to prioritise solar panels. The kids are great. There are no obstacles. They ask why we are complicating things and say just put up the solar panels. As of this Bill, we will be able to do that. It is a positive day for children in schools and it also means they can go home to their moms and dads and say they can do more of it at home.

As rural development spokesperson, I contend that, if they are from a farming background, it is a huge win. The more rural you live, the more sheds and roof space you have. This is nearly more beneficial for rural dwellers than urban dwellers because we tend to have a shed, a lean-to or a few things like that. We have more stuff to store. This will make it simpler for farming communities to put up solar panels and do so in greater numbers. My friends who are dairy farmers have huge energy outgoings. It is a huge cost and, up to now, it has been prohibitive for them to apply for planning and get solar panels on their roofs. This is a good day for them. There are good grants there at the moment for solar panels. The Green Party has put much more into funding solar so it will enable communities and people to own their energy. When you own something, you take more responsibility and become more aware of it.

It has been an abstract thing. When you start educating people on electricity, they do not think about where it comes from, whether that is coal from Moneypoint or turf burning stations in the midlands. We were not aware. We turned on switches or pushed buttons and things just happened. Now we know all our energy comes from fossil fuels or a cleaner, greener source, which is what we are moving towards. This is a huge day for every person in Ireland. They will be empowered to be in charge of their electricity. When we bring in the feed-in tariff in the next couple of months, it will mean that if there is surplus energy, they can send it back to the grid.

I was talking to a principal today in a school we had worked with on the green flag quite a few years ago. He had been on to me about planning permission, as many schools had over the years. He said he had found a company that will fit enough solar panels to cover the school's electricity needs. This is a big school, namely, Ennis CBS. The principal, Dara Glynn, does nothing by halves and has been powering on with this. He was going to get it one way or the other, even before we passed this Bill. He was one of the first people I told today. He said they can get 50% funding from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, to cover the roof in solar panels. It will meet all the school's daily needs and they will be able to sell it at weekends and in summer. Every school in Ireland has to raise funds, even though they should not have to. This is a great day for the poor mams and dads that have been doing bake sales and all these kinds of things for years. Now they can get the solar panels up and apply for the grant. There are low percentage green loans to meet the balance. This will be a possibility and a good way of owning electricity. As Senator O'Reilly said, they can keep an eye and monitor it.

Many kids have been reading ESB monitors for years. We do not realise what has been going on in schools. Teachers and pupils have been doing so much work on this. They have been reading the ESB meter and having photocopy-free Fridays or power-down Tuesdays where they turned everything off in the school to see if the meter would stop. Then they would run around the school to see why it was still running. There has been a lot of work done in schools on this. Many farmers have brought this issue to me over recent years when I was canvassing in north Clare. It was great to see the interest farmers had in this. They were asking when it would be simplified, when they could put up more and what the challenges were. This is a big success today.

I have to thank a few people. I thank our researcher, Kate Ruddock, who did great work on this in recent weeks. She is only with us a short time and got stuck in straight away. Friends of the Earth in recent years did much good work on solar power in schools. Green schools committees all over Ireland have been badgering their teachers and parents to turn off lights, power things down and have photocopy-free Fridays. Instead of having the blinds closed and the lights on, they realise there is daylight, open the curtains and turn off the lights. There is great positive pestering from students. I thank a great woman in Limerick, Asia Pasinska. She went through a two-year battle with the courts because she put up more solar panels than she was supposed to, though fewer than this Bill will allow. She fought tooth and nail for two years. She raised and highlighted an important issue. It was madness that she was getting into trouble for producing her own clean, green energy. This is a good day for her. It is hard for an individual taking on the powers that be for the greater good. She has done that and should be praised.

Is important that public buildings can do it and that local authorities lead the way on this. There are many good energy agencies out there. We have one called Limerick Clare Energy Agency. There is Tipperary Energy Agency and a few more are popping up. I hope they lead the way because if we want the public to do it, we have to expect our public buildings to do it first. I would like to see that happening as a matter of urgency. Local authorities and Government people have to set the standard and be seen to be doing the right thing. It is the way forward. The climate Bill is coming but the less we rely on fossil fuels, the more empowered we are, the more we save money and the more we feel good about ourselves for doing the right thing.

There are grants for batteries as well. If you have surplus energy, you will be able to save it. We are paying €0.18 per kWh. Every kWh you make, you are saving €0.18. Really good sunshine is not needed for the photovoltaics. Solar panels have come a long way. We have top-quality photovoltaic panels that have improved vastly in the last few years. They make electricity on days when there is any light at all. People think it only works when there is loads of sunshine but that is not true. I have many friends who constantly boast about how they have met all their energy needs and it was not even a good, sunny day. This is a positive step. It is not just for the Greens but for everybody. We have to normalise going green. We need to bring everybody with us. This is a positive Bill for all parties and individuals.

I look forward to support from the entire House, including Opposition parties and Independents, as well as our coalition colleagues to move this Bill forward. Let us get the ball rolling, simplify solar and make it easier for people who want to do the right thing.