Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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175. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the upcoming renewable energy support scheme will prioritise wholly owned community projects above community led projects which may have up to 50% private ownership in the ringfenced community auction. [24092/18]

Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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176. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the upcoming renewable energy support scheme will ensure that communities are provided adequate opportunity to invest in community led projects which may have up to 50% private ownership. [24093/18]

Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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177. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the upcoming renewable energy support scheme will ensure community led projects with greater levels of community ownership are prioritised over those with lower levels of community ownership. [24094/18]

Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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178. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if landowners with equity shares within a development will be considered as community investors or developers when evaluating the requirement for community led projects to have at least 50% community investors in the upcoming renewable energy support scheme. [24095/18]

Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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179. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if wholly owned community projects will be processed for a grid connection under the non-GPA process rather than being forced to compete with developer led projects in the ECP process. [24096/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 175 to 179, inclusive, together.

The 2015 Energy White Paper presents a long-term strategic vision that is intended to guide the direction of Irish energy policy from now until 2030.  It identifies the long-term strategic importance of diversifying Ireland's energy generation portfolio and largely decarbonising the energy sector by 2050.

To deliver on this ambition, my Department is currently developing a proposed new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which is being designed to assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contributions out to 2030.

A cornerstone of the new scheme will be the provision of pathways for increased community ownership, participation in and benefit from renewable electricity projects. The new scheme will deliver capacity building supports for community-led projects, including financial, technical and legal assistance, along with community benefit obligations, for projects looking for support under RESS. This approach will deliver on the 2015 Energy White Paper commitment to ensure communities and citizens are at the centre of the future energy transition in Ireland.

Communities are effectively being designed into the fabric of the new scheme and a comprehensive assessment of polices and support measures to increase community ownership from renewable electricity projects has been undertaken. This study was carried out in  parallel with the economic analysis to underpin the new RESS, and it  examined which policies and support measures would work best in an Irish context, to deliver these ambitions. The assessment looked at international best practice, and a renewable energy – community workshop was held, where barriers and opportunities related to renewable electricity projects were identified for further analysis. The study also looked at how these policies and support measures could be best applied across a range of project archetypes, including developer-led, community-led and wholly owned community projects

Examples of support measures identified include a mandatory requirement for all projects supported under RESS to offer ownership or investment opportunities to the local population, facilitating grid access for community-led renewable projects, ring fencing dedicated capacity for community-led projects and putting in place structures which will support community groups overcome legal, financial and technical barriers to renewable electricity generation.

The Community Report as it is known, along with the Economic Appraisal to underpin the new RESS were both published by my Department last year for public consultation and are available on my Departments website at .

A final design proposal on RESS will shortly be brought to Government for approval, and subsequent to this a formal application for State Aid clearance with the European Commission will commence in line with 2014 EU State Aid Guidelines. The new scheme is expected to open in 2019. Over the coming months, my Department will work closely with all relevant stakeholder groups to ensure the delivery of the community commitments as far as possible as the scheme is developed.

Finally, the regulation of the electricity network, including the management of the grid connection process and related matters, is a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), under the Electricity Regulation Act, 1999. The CRU is an independent statutory body, solely accountable to a committee of the Oireachtas, and I therefore have no function in the matter.