Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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200. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the means by which his Department will support community-led renewable energy cooperatives over the next three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59023/25]

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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202. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will consider additional funding for community energy projects led by local co-operatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59026/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 200 and 202 together.

The Programme for Government commits to promoting the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS) to simplify market access for community-owned solar and wind projects.

Through the first two Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auctions, my Department created pathways for community participation via a dedicated community projects category in RESS.

Support for these projects has now transitioned to the non-competitive SRESS which has been specifically designed to support community, SME and farm projects between 50 kW and 6 MW. SRESS provides a simpler route to market for these projects, with fixed tariffs for solar and wind.

Community projects in SRESS receive significantly higher tariffs than commercial developers, to reflect the additional challenges they face. The SRESS solar tariffs provide community projects with a premium, compared to the weighted average strike prices for community-led projects in RESS 1 and RESS 2 and with recent general RESS solar strike prices.

To further support communities, SEAI provides a range of supports to develop renewable energy projects. These include nine comprehensive guides covering stakeholder engagement, business planning and the Irish electricity market, freely available on the SEAI website.

In addition, SEAI provides community groups with free access to specialist technical advisors, to guide them through all stages of project development—from forming a community group to site identification, feasibility studies, project design, and grid and planning applications.

SEAI also prepares county-level grid analysis reports and guidance to help communities identify areas most likely to have economically viable grid connections, a critical factor in building a sustainable community energy sector.

To support these measures, SEAI has been allocated €1 million in 2025. There are no immediate plans to increase this allocation, as community projects also benefit from the higher SRESS tariff.