Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome here today to deal with this vital legislation. I commend my Green Party colleagues on taking it forward. Senator Garvey has been pushing the merits of this very step on me for some months now, and I am fully in agreement with her. It is excellent legislation. The Fianna Fáil party is very much in agreement with the principles of the legislation. It is absolutely imperative that we now take these steps in our efforts to become a much greener society. At a time farming is being asked to step up, here is a win-win situation for the Government and for farming across the State. There was a lot of investment by the Government around 2007 and 2008 in farming to improve the regulation and operation of farms and there was investment in farm sheds and slurry pits. A lot of that investment was done to a very high standard. The number of farms, even small farms, across the country that benefited from that gives us the opportunity to build on our electricity network through having the ability to put panels on these sheds, which are of a very high standard and are absolutely capable of taking solar panels. As Senator Garvey explained, the panels are not heavy anymore. It is imperative that the work starts and that the roll-out of the meters also happens.

Moreover, while this may not apply directly to the Minister of State but more so to his colleague in government, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, it is imperative that there is an incentive to farmers for the use of solar farming. The threshold of 50 acres or thereabouts is currently too high and needs to be reviewed. If we in government are to be real about this, those thresholds need to be reviewed to ensure that solar farming becomes a much more inclusive way of creating energy in the State. I believe that those small steps can go a long way to us meeting our targets.

My last point is on the use of roof space and the fact that panels can currently only use 50% of roof space.There is a lot of waste attached to that. There is at least another 25% in most cases that can and should be used. I hope the Minister of State can build that into the legislation we are debating.