Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want as many people to have solar power as possible so that they are taking part and have a sense that they are contributing towards climate action and generating money. I want as many people as possible to take part in this. The Deputy is right to say that the deployment of solar generation is not entirely my responsibility. TAMS is a scheme of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Putting a solar panel on the roof of every school is a Department of Education scheme. We cannot have a situation whereby everything to do with climate action is supposed to be done by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Although I will help those Departments as much as possible, they are the ones to come back to. I understand that funding for TAMS has been greatly increased and that the scheme has been made much simpler as a result of the removal of the planning permission requirements.

The Deputy asked about technology-specific auctions. Our auctions are currently technology neutral. One can apply with any technology. I am not aware of an argument to switch to solar only or to technology-specific applications. The economic theory is that one gets the best answer by making it technology neutral. If the Deputy wants to make a proposal to me for technology-specific auctions, I will give it fair consideration.

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