Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this very important topic. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I know he is very much au fait with this topic. It is sometimes hard to understand what is happening. We were importing peat while at the same time producing peat for export, although that was shut down and we are now just importing peat. On the other hand, we were paying very significant fines to Europe in respect of a wind farm at Derrybrien in Galway. We are now taking down the wind turbines on that site. That should be looked at. The turbines are already there and the damage that was done will not be rectified. The facility should be handed over to the State. Perhaps the energy produced by this wind farm could be used to offset poverty in our country.

It is important to look at the way various Departments have acted over recent years and at how slowly the wheels turn within them. They can put great pressure on various business sectors and on the farming sector to make very significant changes while not acting as quickly themselves. We can see how slowly the wheels are turning in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with regard to foreshore licensing for offshore wind farms. There is only one offshore wind farm in the country and it is on the east coast while we are told the best wind speeds in Europe are those off the west coast. We have been hearing about this for the last ten or 11 years. We have been coming in here for transition statements and so forth year after year but, at the same time, there does not seem to be any great urgency with regard to this matter.

There are various other opportunities Departments, the Office of Public Works, OPW, and the local authorities could avail of. There is any number of lakes in this country where hydroelectric power could be generated. This could power public lighting for local authorities. In my own town of Castlebar, there are three connected lakes that come right into the town. We could put in a weir to produce that type of energy if the OPW and the local authority were to come together. It could be done as a pilot project. There are many such opportunities throughout the length and breadth of the country that could be looked at but the Departments, the local authority and the OPW all act too slowly. It has been a long time since Pat Rabbitte was the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. He was in the same Department as the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, whom I welcome to the House, is in now. He talked about many of those issues. In many cases, there has been no movement on them. I must acknowledge the great strides the Minister is making.

We had a meeting with West on Track on its proposal to extend the line from Athenry to Claremorris, which would cost a minimal amount of money, €158 million. I have noticed a great increase in rail traffic over the last two or three years but the services must be in place before people will use them. A certain frequency of service is also required. There is not enough frequency on the lines from Westport and Ballina to Dublin to get to the required levels of participation, even though the capacity and usage of those lines has increased over the last two years in particular.

I will touch on the issue of domestic solar generation. I know the Minister is very au faitwith this. There is an enormous difference between a good sunny day and a cloudy day with regard to producing energy. There is also a big difference in the amount of energy the same type of solar panel can produce in the north of the country and in the sunny south east.At this stage, we should consider manufacturing small 2 kW and 3 kW wind turbines to complement house solar panels so people can become self-sufficient. Quite a number of houses, maybe up to 1 million throughout the country, could avail of small wind turbines, which would be very efficient. This country could manufacture them because we are world-class leaders in the production of some farm machinery. I have no doubt we could be world-class leaders in the production of those type of small wind turbines as well, if we only got our act together to produce them. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment could play a major role in that.