Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that things take longer when a fire is not lit under an issue or the Government. There is a fire under every one of us; the planet is on fire and people are impatient for change because they have been calling for it for so long. The Minister of State can come in and say the Government has started this, probably with thanks to the Green Party and the programme for Government, but communities, activists and my party have been calling for this for many years. The Bill is important and I will not delay it any further. I refer to the Government being able to do this by regulation. We just want to see it done so that schools can avail of the opportunity to lower their contribution costs, reduce their electricity bills, heat water and sell their excess energy back to the grid. These are all issues that I raised and were discussed on Second Stage. It is important that people are lighting a fire and being impatient with the Government on this because doing so moves the issue on. We respect that there are procedures the Government has to follow but it is important that we light a fire under the Government to do its job.