John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the item on the Order Paper regarding the solar regulations. This was discussed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage last Thursday and I pay tribute to everyone who has had any part in bringing this forward. I thank in particular my Fine Gael colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, for all his work and determination in seeing these regulations brought into being. There are many people who have been looking for these exemptions from the requirement of planning for solar panels for quite some time. These new regulations will allow a homeowner to install solar panels on their roof without the requirement to go for planning. They also will expand the restrictions on businesses from 50 sq. m. to 300 sq. m., with only a small percentage of the area of this country - 2% - being restricted in terms of safeguarding zones around aviation. It is important to state it is not that solar panels cannot be installed in these areas; it is just that homeowners need to seek planning permission for it. In 98% of areas in the country, people will no longer have to seek planning permission. That is good for individuals, communities, businesses and farms. The Government is considering a maximum grant of up to €90,000 and 60% of the cost of installing solar panels on farms buildings in the new targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS, which will be introduced in the new year. What I want to see and what we need to include in that is battery storage. Without the battery storage, there are farms that will not get the benefit of having this significant increase in solar panels on their buildings. I ask the Leader for a debate in the House on this matter because it is a right and opportune time for it.