Vol. 931 No. 3
40. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the immediate contingency steps he will take to safeguard security of energy supply here following the decision by UK voters to leave the EU in its recent referendum and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38596/16]
45. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the engagement he has had with his counterparts in Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and other EU countries on the impact of the vote by the United Kingdom to leave the EU. [38570/16]
Will the Minister outline the immediate contingency steps he will take to safeguard the security of energy supply on the island following the decision by UK voters to leave the EU in its recent referendum?
I propose to take Question Nos. 40 and 45 together.
Substantial work has been and continues to be undertaken across Government to identify the key strategic, policy and operational risks following the outcome of the referendum on EU membership in the UK in June. A Cabinet committee chaired by An Taoiseach, of which I am a member, has been set up to consider all potential contingency planning issues arising for Ireland from the referendum result. My Department sits on a number of interdepartmental groups that ensure a whole-of-Government approach to this important matter.
Energy is a priority sector for the Government in considering the impacts of Brexit. The energy systems of Ireland and the UK are interdependent with a large amount of Ireland's energy supply being imported from the UK and a single electricity market in operation across the island of Ireland. The key priorities for me are the continuation of the current Ireland-UK energy relationship, particularly with regard to secure trade of gas and oil and the continued operation and development of the single electricity market. There is excellent co-operation between the UK and Ireland on security of energy supply and all avenues will be pursued bilaterally with the EU and at EU level to ensure this remains the case.
As the House is no doubt aware, the EU has made the decision not to negotiate on any issues relating to Brexit until after Article 50 has been invoked. However, while attending meetings, such as the Energy Council, from which I have just returned, I seek out discussions with Ministers from other member states. Through these meetings, I raise awareness of how Ireland may be impacted by Brexit and what are our key concerns.
At the recent North-South Ministerial Council, I had a bilateral meeting with Simon Hamilton MLA, the Minister for the Economy in Northern Ireland, where we discussed energy issues relevant to both Ireland and Northern Ireland. My officials continue to work closely with their counterparts in Northern Ireland, the UK and other EU member states on energy matters.
While the Single European Market is not under any serious threat as a result of Brexit, the integrated single European project likely is. As of now the SEM is undergoing significant upgrades in order to comply with the EU regulations the Minister has identified. Obviously, Britain's departure could seriously jeopardise this project and it is unclear whether the UK will receive EU funding to aid this transition. It is also unclear as to whether this will remain an attractive option for the UK following its departure. It throws our participation in that into jeopardy. It would be important for the Minister to engage with the various stakeholders at the earliest opportunity in order to give some confidence to that sector. The concerns transcend just the price concerns. Currently Ireland relies on EU regulatory measures to address shocks in the supply of oil and gas. If the UK energy market became independent of the EU, Ireland would lose access to a portion of its 90-day emergency reserve that is stored in the UK.
There is huge connectivity in energy supply on both islands. About 50% of all the oil we consume and all of the natural gas last year came from the UK. We have the single electricity market. My priority and that of my Department is to ensure the continuation of trade in secure supplies of energy with the UK. In that context at yesterday's European Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council I raised the issue of gas supply. At the moment we are looking at issues such as regional co-operation - the region we have is between Ireland and the UK. We are very conscious that the UK may be outside our region. We believe that there should be flexibility such that that region remains intact.
We are exploring other options, including the Celtic interconnector. President Hollande was in Ireland recently and an agreement was signed between Réseau de Transport d'Électricité, RTE, in France and EirGrid here about developing that project. We are considering the possibility of an LNG terminal in Shannon so that we are not dependent on all our energy supplies coming from one source.
41. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he received an invitation to the United Nations climate change conference in Marrakesh in the second week of November 2016. [36040/16]
I understand the Minister attended the climate change conference in Marrakesh, COP 22. I ask him for a report of what happened there. I understand afterwards the Minister promised to set out a roadmap to transition to a low-carbon economy. I ask him to outline how that will happen.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held its 21st Conference of the Parties, COP 21, in Paris from 30 November to 12 December 2015. Ireland was represented in Paris by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and other relevant Ministers and Ministers of State also attended. The major outcome of COP 21 was the agreement by over 180 countries to restrict the impact of emissions on global warming and to limit the temperature rise to 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an ambition of 1.5° Celsius. This will be done through a range of climate action plans known as nationally determined contributions which will tackle 95% of the world’s emissions.
The 22nd Conference of the Parties, COP 22, took place in Marrakesh from 7 to 18 November 2016 and marked the entry into force of the Paris Agreement. The conference, as with all conferences of the parties, included a high level segment with appropriate attendance by relevant Ministers. In this regard, I received an invitation from the Moroccan hosts and along with a delegation representing Ireland's key Departments and agencies involved in climate change, I attended the second week of COP 22 and reaffirmed Ireland's commitment to combat climate change during the high level segment.
COP 22 represented a further expression of the global ambition to tackle climate change, with the focus shifting to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Consensus was reached on the establishment of a rules-based system which will turn the Paris Agreement into a fully operational agreement by 2018. Global agreement was also reached on a number of significant financial issues at COP 22, including increasing the predictability of climate finance and the publication of the roadmap to the 2020 global commitment to provide $100 billion of climate finance funding annually. Agreement was also reached on the major funding mechanisms of the Paris Agreement and on the significance of adaptation finance.
Ireland ratified the Paris Agreement on 4 November and will contribute to its goals through the nationally determined commitment submitted by the European Union and its member states, which targets an overall EU reduction of at least 40% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
This is the No. 1 crisis of humanity. It threatens our planet and all of our people. Some 150,000 people die every year linked to climate change. What will be different this time? Last year the Taoiseach went to Paris and told the world Ireland was committed to addressing climate change. He said, "I hope that we are serious about putting in place a legally binding agreement on climate change that will underpin our actions". Hours later he was quoted as saying that the targets were unrealistic, saying that Ireland had a bad recession and could not meet those targets without harming agriculture and that Ireland would look for wriggle-room on targets before sending people to negotiate with the EU to lower the targets.
Given that scientists now say we will definitively pass the 1.5° Celsius mark and are heading towards 2° Celsius, which literally has fatal consequences for large numbers of people, will Ireland be more ambitious than previously indicated by the Taoiseach?
We will present our transition statement to the House on Thursday and to the Seanad tomorrow. I hope to publish the draft mitigation plan within the next couple of weeks, following Cabinet approval. That will set out a draft of the actions to be taken by the Department. I look forward to Deputy Paul Murphy's input to that.
He is right: this is the single biggest challenge we all have. The big focus will need to be on not only 2050 and the need to reduce carbon with effectively a zero-carbon economy by then, but we also have bigger challenges in the short term regarding things such as black carbon, HFCs, hydrofluorocarbons and methane. There are a number of aspects to that. Not just in the area of agriculture and black carbon, but diesel engines are a particular problem for us. These are complex issues that the mitigation plan will address.
For many of us it is horrifying that the world's most important political post is about to be held by a climate-change denier, Donald Trump, who has threatened to pull out of the Paris Agreement, pull out of the UN Framework on Climate Change, and has promised to increase fossil fuel production and as part of that drive, fracking.
Did the Minister have discussions with any US representatives at the conference or since? Fine words are all very good, but Irish agriculture is due to increase its emissions by 6% to 7% by 2020 and transport emissions are set to climb by between 10% and 16% over that period. So the key elements in avoiding further emissions coming from Ireland particularly at a time when a global consensus at least that climate change exists and is manmade, are breaking down despite all the scientific evidence.
The issue of the incoming US President, Donald Trump, was on everybody's lips in Marrakesh. I discussed it with American representatives - I discussed it with the head of the US EPA, who is effectively the Minister and the high representative from the United States. The Secretary of State, John Kerry, was also there, but I did not get the opportunity to speak to him. I spoke to representatives of the European Commission about it. I know the European Commission is actively engaged on the issue and is providing the type of leadership necessary particularly now that it is not coming from the US.
It is a little disingenuous - I do not mean of Deputy Paul Murphy - to say all of the debate has been focused on agriculture; it should also be focused on transport and my Department must take some of the responsibility also. In fairness, the agricultural and farming community saw the devastation caused by flooding this time last year. It appreciates that things need to change and is making progress in that regard, but progress will be slow. The one word of caution I would sound is that many countries in the developing world are looking very closely at what is happening in agriculture in Ireland and New Zealand, in particular, because they have a waiver in agriculture until post-2030. If we get it wrong in agriculture, they will not sign up to the 2040 targets. It is imperative that we bring as many people and countries as possible with us. We must provide leadership; show that we can be responsible in agriculture and that we can reduce emissions, as well as improve production. There is an opportunity to provide leadership for the world. Ireland's representatives had a multilateral meeting with representatives of Uruguay, Argentina and New Zealand to see how we could share our technology and research to provide the type of leadership needed in this area.
42. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when he will introduce a renewable energy feed in tariff, REFIT, scheme for PV solar and offshore wind energy production; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38595/16]
The programme for Government contains a commitment to further decrease Ireland's dependence on imported fossil fuels through the use of indigenous renewable energy resources. This commitment builds on the 2015 energy White Paper which recognised the long-term strategic importance of diversifying Ireland's energy generation portfolio. With this in mind, my Department is working on the development of a new renewable electricity support scheme, RESS. As part of this process, a range of renewable energy technologies will be being assessed, including solar photovoltaics, PV, and offshore wind power technology. It is widely recognised that solar PV technology is becoming cost competitive for electricity generation, not only compared with other renewables but also with conventional forms of generation. It also brings a number of benefits such as relatively quick construction and a range of deployment options, including solar roof-mounted PV and utility-scale solar PV technology.
Ireland’s potentially has one of the best offshore renewable energy resources in the world. Offshore wind projects have been used effectively in other EU member states and can yield a higher relative energy output than onshore wind projects. While the affordability of offshore wind projects has improved in recent years, it remains an expensive option. The most up-to-date installation costs for offshore wind projects will be examined as part of the renewable electricity support scheme development process. This work will help to inform a final decision on whether offshore wind projects are currently a cost-effective option for deployment in Ireland.
The findings of the first technology review public consultation process on a new renewable support scheme were published in 2015 and following the completion of detailed economic analysis of the viability and cost effectiveness of supporting a range of renewable technologies, the findings of a second public consultation process will be published in early 2017. Details of the next public consultation process will be advertised on my Department's website. Before any new scheme is introduced, it will need to secure Government approval and state aid clearance from the European Commission. The new support scheme for renewable electricity is expected to become available in late 2017.
With respect to the Minister, I believe 2017 is too late. We have already dealt with the difficulties Ireland is experiencing in meeting its targets. As the Minister knows well, the scheme is unavailable in the case of many of the new important technologies in the generation of solar and offshore wind power. That makes Ireland one of the outliers among its European peers. Homeowners in other jurisdictions are able to make money from solar panels using feed-in tariffs. On a larger scale, the REFIT tariffs can expedite the adaption of technology by providing an added incentive for investors. I fail to understand the reason for the delays in the light of the fact that we have known about the necessity to have feed-in tariffs if we are to advance in line with the growth in technologies. It is well recognised that the cost of solar panels has reduced very significantly. We need to look at other options for offshore wind projects because of the difficulties in addressing planning matters. It is very clear that there is no immediate strategy to address the opportunities provided and all the while we are moving towards 2020. Ireland will not be in a position to meet its targets and we will have to pay fines on the other side.
The immediate priority for me is the renewable heat incentive scheme because it can help us to reach our 2020 targets. It is expected that we will pretty much meet our renewable electricity targets for 2020 based on what is already in the pipeline. The Deputy and his colleagues have been very critical of me in the past because of the cost of the public service obligation, PSO, levy. In approving the new technologies, be they offshore wind, solar or other technologies, the funds will come from consumers' pockets. We must be conscious of this. The difficulty is that there are enough applications within the system for solar photovoltaics; if every other power generation plant and wind turbine in the State was switched off on a sunny day in winter, not only would we have enough electricity to meet our needs in Ireland, we could also export it. Irish consumers are the ones who would have to pay the subsidy which would be about treble the subsidy currently payable for wind generated electricity. I need to try to get the balance right and that is what I am trying to do.
I accept that there are plenty of opportunities and that at some point a qualitative approach must be taken to what is and is not used. Obviously, that will ultimately be dictated by how one sets the tariff or how the support mechanism is set. It is my understanding there are about ten wind farm projects that are held up, accounting for about 200 MW of electricity across the State if the existing REFIT scheme was addressed for onshore wind projects. Of course, the other technologies are exploratory. They are important, but they are going to be costly. However, the Minister is going to have to begin the process of looking at offshore wind projects and solar power and the sooner that happens, the better. It would be acceptable if he put some cap on it. Nobody is suggesting the entire stock in electricity generation be moved from one source to another. There needs to be a mix. It was always recognised in all of the strategic documents that there was a need for a blended mix of resources in order that we would develop the technology and, in so doing, bring down the cost of the generation of electricity. As the Minister knows, in the early stages wind power generation was a lot more costly than it is now. More efficient turbines are now on the market. I again ask that he give consideration to bringing forward the REFIT scheme in a much more timely manner and, obviously, introduce some capacity constraints.
It is my intention to bring forward the scheme as quickly as I can, but my immediate priority is the renewable heat incentive scheme. We have not been sitting on our laurels. We have been engaged with the Commission on solar costs and it has indicated that import levies on solar panels are likely to be lifted. One of the first things I did as Minister was to sign the North Sea agreement with all of the countries involved, including the United Kingdom, in order that we could share knowledge and technology in the roll-out of offshore wind projects. It is becoming more cost effective, but there are still challenges. There is no doubt, however, that there are huge opportunities in using wind, tidal and wave power off Ireland's coast. We must remember that our territorial waters are ten times the size of the landmass of the island of Ireland. There is massive potential. I am trying to ensure we can encourage and support the development and roll-out of these technologies and do not place an excessive burden on consumers. At the European Council yesterday I raised the issue of how we might support micro-generation because consumers not only have the opportunity to meet their own needs but also to actually export to the grid excess energy and electricity supplies they generate.
43. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on media plurality, given the recent acquisitions of a number of radio stations by international media corporations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38592/16]
What are the Minister's views on media plurality, given the recent acquisitions of a number of radio stations by international media corporations? Will he make a statement on the matter?
I assume the Deputy is referring to the recent media merger which involved the purchase of a number of radio stations. Having received my Department's assessment, I determined on 22 September this merger was not contrary to the public interest in maintaining the plurality of media in the State. Details of the media merger regime, including the associated statutory guidelines, are available on my Department's website. This assessment process is based upon the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014, which gives the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the responsibility for assessing proposed media mergers, and empowers the Minister to prevent any merger that is deemed likely to be contrary to the public interest in maintaining the plurality of media in the State.
An important part of the current regime is the requirement on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, to prepare, every three years, a report on the ownership and control arrangements of media businesses in Ireland. In June of this year, I published the first such report, the Report on Ownership and Control of Media Businesses in Ireland 2012-2014. In this report, which is available on my Department's website, the BAI concludes that there has not been a material reduction in media plurality in the State due to the limited changes in ownership and control in the period 2012-2014.
Furthermore, the international expert group, Sustainable Governance Indicators, ranked Ireland nine out of ten in media freedom and eight out of ten in media pluralism, noting that Irish media is independent, with a pluralist ownership structure.
In my view, the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 strikes the correct balance in this area and is working well and, as a result, I am confident that we have a robust and effective set of measures in place to support and encourage a plural and diverse media.
The question is focused on the purchase of a number of radio stations by News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's company. It purchased Wireless Group, which owns radio stations FM104, Q102, LMFM, Cork's 96 FM, C103, Live 95FM and U105.8FM Belfast. These stations have a 14% share of listenership. This adds to News Corp's media ownership and a lack of diversity and plurality because the same company also owns The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and the online company Storyful, apart altogether from BSkyB and Fox. I notice a report by Roderick Fleming from DCU, as part of a recent report by the European University Institute, put Ireland in the high risk category, at 74%, with regard to the concentration of media ownership, and at medium risk of 50% with regard to concentration of cross-media ownership. Will the Minister comment on this?
I thank Deputy Barry. There have been a number of reports on media plurality. The one hitting the headlines at present is that by Lynn Boylan, MEP. I was asked earlier by Deputy Stanley whether I had read it and I have. It raises issues on the media mergers process, but I must stress the report itself did not form part of the assessment process with regard to merger cases which have been or are under consideration. The assessment criteria for media mergers is laid out clearly in legislation and statutory guidelines. I have considered all the media mergers in exact compliance with the legislation and guidelines set out and I have not deviated one iota from these with regard to any of the media mergers I have considered to date or any media mergers I will consider in future. Retrospection was debated in the House when the 2014 legislation went through and it is about getting a balance. Deputy Boyd Barrett was in the House during that debate. It is about trying to strike a balance, which is what we are trying to do.
Speaking of striking a balance, let us throw a few more statistics into the discussion. Denis O'Brien's operation owns a 29% stake in Independent News and Media. It has 100% control of Communicorp. This includes titles such as The Independent, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent, the Evening Herald and 13 local titles. It has a 45% share of national newspapers. On top of that, it also has radio stations including Today FM, Newstalk, Spin 1038 and Spin South West. It has 21% of listeners but probably more than 21% of the news agenda because of Newstalk being part of the operation. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which reports to the Minister, carried out a report on ownership in Ireland from 2012 to 2014. It recommended that anything above a 20% share in a media company was too much and allowed the individual to exert influence over content and management appointments. Throughout Europe there are laws which limit how much of the media any one company or person can own. Will the Minister introduce legislation such as this which will apply retrospectively?
Retrospection is an issue flagged in the report published by Lynn Boylan, MEP. The report in itself recognises it is an extremely difficult area with regard to property rights, market effects, procedural fairness and freedom of expression considerations. This was the caveat put on retrospection. During the passage of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act in 2014 the introduction of retrospection regarding media ownership was debated. The decision was made that on balance it would not be right or proper to consider it. The threshold issue was raised during the Committee Stage debate, but setting a specific threshold can be fraught with risk. The only responsibility I have in this regard is to look at media plurality, and when I receive the report from my officials I will consider it in the context of the statutory obligations I have as set out in legislation and guidelines. I will look at this purely from the point of media plurality.
44. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the process he will use to appoint members to the selection committee for the tendering process of the national broadband plan. [38597/16]
Will the Minister outline the methodology he will use to appoint members to the selection committee for the tendering process of the national broadband plan? Will he advise the House of such?
The national broadband plan represents a significant capital investment project for the State and aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the national broadband plan as a matter of priority. The Government’s intervention strategy is available on my Department's website and sets out detailed service specifications, including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high quality, high speed broadband.
My Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies which will roll out the new high speed broadband network to more than 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000 km of road network and 96% of the land mass of Ireland. Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing, and the three remaining bidders have indicated they propose a predominantly fibre to the home solution.
The procurement process is now well under way, with in excess of 250 hours of dialogue completed with the three bidders and more than 2,000 pages of contract documentation exchanged. This process aims to tease out all of the detailed proposals with a view to ensuring that the final contract or contracts are fit for purpose and fully deliver on the Government's high level objective of a truly open access, wholesale network that delivers quality affordable services to all premises in the intervention area, regardless of how remote these premises are and meets their needs for in excess of 25 years.
After the initial dialogue is concluded, the bidders will be asked to submit draft proposals for consideration and further dialogue. When this process is complete a formal tender will issue.
I assure the Deputy that the procurement process is being intensively managed by my Department to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland for at least 25 years. My Department's national broadband plan team is supported by external consultants providing additional support in the area of procurement, as well as legal, financial and technical expertise. It would not be appropriate for me to comment further publicly on the evaluation process at this time.
Maybe the Minister did not fully understand what I was asking him. It is not about anything other than ensuring an independent process that has no potential, in the future, to be tainted or to be something about which questions could be raised. I am asking him to provide the House with the strategy to ensure that the outcome of the process will not be open to question by any of the unsuccessful bidders. He will know that this was a feature of various State contracts in the past, though I will not get into specifics on them. Is it his intention to put an evaluation board together with international expertise? How might he compile such a board to review the tenders?
The Minister has given me a clear picture of what the national broadband strategy hopes to achieve and I welcome that. He has also told me about the discussions that have taken place but at some point a group of people will have to make a decision to pick one or two of the three consortia. Therein lies the potential for problems and the House needs to know how the Minister intends to ensure that the panel is above and beyond reproach and not open to question from any particular party.
They have already taken decisions. There were originally six consortia and now there are three. They are completely at arm's length from the Department and we are sensitive to the issues. We are conscious of the potential for legal challenge and we are particularly sensitive to the issue based on the experience of previous procurement processes.
I do not think I have, as of yet, publicly declared the three companies and there was a delay because of the sensitivities involved. At every stage of this process all the implications are fully considered before any public comments are made. I am happy to facilitate the Deputy if he wants to talk to the assistant secretary heading this process so that it can be outlined to him. We are trying to be as careful as possible to ensure that it is not just transparent but whiter than white. We are in regular contact with the European Commission on the matter as well.
I may take the Minister up on that offer in due course. It is important, from the point of view of public perception, to ensure transparency at the earliest possible opportunity. I understand the necessity to retain certain information on account of commercial sensitivity but that is not necessary in setting out the process and giving information about what kind of expertise will be appointed. I am not suggesting that the Minister or his Department would do anything other than what is appropriate but if some of the mystery is taken out of the process in the early stages it prevents a head of steam being built up. We do not want a Fatima-style approach in which there is a sense of mystery where there is none. In most other countries the people and the processes are set out very clearly.
I accept that there is a potential for legal challenges but the public must be able to have confidence and I ask the Minister to reconsider. If I get the opportunity to meet the assistant secretary I will make those points without expecting him or her to provide any proprietary information. It is about ensuring that the process is not just above and beyond reproach but is seen to be. Doing this may be of benefit in any further legal challenge.
I take the Deputy's point and accept the genuine concerns he has on the issue. Since I became Minister I have been threatened twice, if not three times, with legal action in regard to the national broadband plan so I will be extremely careful about what I put on the public record. I am happy to facilitate the meeting for the Deputy as there is absolutely nothing to hide. I am completely aloof as to that aspect of the process and that is deliberate, with a view to ensuring that there cannot be any accusation of influence. I advise the Deputy to talk directly to the people involved who will be able to advise him as to why I have not given the detail he requested.
46. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the measures being taken within his Department to ensure equality in the roll-out of broadband services for rural areas, rural communities and regional towns under the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38310/16]
I ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the measures being taken within his Department to ensure equality in the roll-out of broadband services for rural areas, rural communities and regional towns under the national broadband plan.
The national broadband plan aims to deliver high-speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The programme for Government commits to the delivery of the national broadband plan as a matter of priority. This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies, at a rate of some €1.4 million per day, and through State intervention in areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated.
The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll out a new high-speed broadband network to over 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000 km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland.
The programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the roll-out of the national broadband plan State intervention network once a contract is awarded. In this regard, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Heather Humphreys, is leading on the establishment of two regional action groups working with local authorities, local enterprise offices and other relevant agencies to unlock barriers to investment in mobile and broadband services. Since July, there has been significant progress made in discussions with the key stakeholders, including local authority management representation, Government Departments and State agencies, as well as interaction with ComReg and telecoms operators.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht and I also established a mobile phone and broadband task force in July 2016. The task force will recommend practical actions that can be taken in the short term to improve mobile phone and broadband access in Ireland. The work of the task force will also assist local authorities in preparing for the roll-out of the new national broadband network once the contract or contracts are in place. I expect that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and I will bring the report of the task force to Government in the coming weeks.
I am satisfied that the combination of initiatives to improve wireless services and the procurement process to deliver a new high-speed broadband network under the national broadband plan will put Ireland to the forefront internationally in terms of connectivity, and ensure that high-speed broadband services are universally available across the country.
I thank the Minister for his response and acknowledge that he has taken on a very difficult brief with the best of intentions since the Taoiseach announced his appointment in May last. However, I remain gravely concerned that the need for prioritisation of broadband roll-out for rural areas is being severely underestimated within the Government’s national broadband plan. Many rural and regional towns are being forced to endure unacceptably substandard broadband services as a result of the current digital divide.
The recently released switcher report revealed that certain parts of rural Ireland have broadband speeds 36 times slower than speeds in our capital. It is simply not acceptable that homeowners and business owners in areas such as Clonmore in Carlow are being forced to accept speeds averaging 5.58 Mbps, while just 70 km up the N81 in Drimnagh, Dublin, they are among the fastest in the country at 72.15 Mbps.
This example points to serious inequality in the distribution of broadband under the national broadband plan and highlights the urgent need for equality of access for homes and businesses in rural Ireland.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Research by Vodafone Ireland in November found that one third of rural businesses would consider moving their premises to a nearby town or city given that they can no longer afford to be left out of the digital economy.
The Deputy is fully correct and this is my challenge as Minister. I am taking a number of actions. I am assisting the likes of eir, SIRO, Vodafone and Virgin with the roll-out of their networks and we have addressed a number of physical blockages to it. We have released the 3.6 GHz spectrum and it will be auctioned early in the new year. This will assist the likes of Imagine and other wireless operators to improve the coverage and services they provide in rural Ireland. We will publish the details of the mobile phone and broadband task force within the next couple of weeks. This will deal with the roll-out of 4G and 3G broadband. I am engaged in trying to use the capacity within the metropolitan area networks to try to release them and improve the quality of broadband in the towns where the network is in place. I am engaged with some of the commercial companies to see how we can fast-track the roll-out of their networks in rural areas. The final piece in the jigsaw is the national broadband plan. We are determined to pursue it and roll the network out as quickly as we can as soon as the contracts are signed.
The word is equilibrium and it is equality. I agree that fibre broadband is the way to go, if we can get fibre broadband to every household. However, as a rural Deputy I know it will not be possible. With all the Minister's grand plans and whenever he rolls out broadband over the next number of years, it will not reach rural areas. While it might get into the populated areas, the towns and villages, he will not get it up to small lanes three, four or five miles outside these areas which I represent. There are small, rural areas all over Ireland. We are not talking only about Carlow-Kilkenny. We must consider wireless connection, given that fibre will not reach every house. We must consider both fibre and wireless services. Otherwise, people will be left behind and those in rural Ireland will not get the service they need. We are trying to keep rural Ireland alive and keep the country going. Rural Ireland must play its part in the country.
I can imagine where the Deputy is coming from. The commercial companies are rolling out fibre broadband in rural areas across the country. It can be done.
To reach every household?
The three consortia involved in the national broadband plan are saying that for the vast majority of homes they will provide fibre to the door. The European Commission is talking about 1,000 Mbps going to homes across the country. We cannot do that with wireless technology at the moment. Wireless can meet our short-term need and that is why I am supporting wireless. I have met with all the wireless operators and I have actively encouraged them. They have raised a number of bottlenecks in the system which I am addressing. This is why I am releasing the 3.6 GHz spectrum, specifically to allow the wireless networks to roll it out pending the roll-out of the national broadband plan.
People will not need up to 1,000 Mbps in rural areas in the next five or ten years, but they may need it in 15 years. Deputy Eugene Murphy will acknowledge that the most rural constituency in the country, bar none, is Roscommon-Galway. I know, because I am getting it in the neck first hand about the problems there. I am determined to ensure this network is rolled out in every single constituency and county together. Nobody will be first and nobody will be last. Everybody will get access to a high-speed network, no matter how isolated they are.
47. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the person or bodies overseeing wind farm development across the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38629/16]
Despite frequent rhetorical commitments by the Government to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the 2015 report on emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency was damning. It showed that overall, emissions were increasing by 3.7% and that emissions have increased under every single major heading including agriculture, industry, transport, the energy industries and manufacturing. Does this not suggest that the huge emphasis that has been put on industrial wind as a way of developing renewable energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a serious failure and a waste of money? Who, exactly, is looking at it? Given the huge investment in industrial wind and its centrality to our renewable energy plans, who exactly is in charge of wind and ensuring it is reducing carbon dioxide emissions?
The energy White Paper presents a long-term strategic vision that is intended to guide the direction of Irish energy policy from now until 2030. At its heart is a commitment to transform Ireland into a low-carbon society and economy by 2050 and reduce the country’s fossil fuel dependency. The programme for partnership Government also commits to reducing our import dependency while maintaining energy security and affordability, and reducing energy related emissions. The development of renewable energy in Ireland via a range of technology specific supports is one of the best ways to encourage this transition and diversify our energy generation portfolio. This is why my Department introduced a renewable energy feed-in tariff, REFIT, scheme across a range of different renewable electricity technologies, including onshore wind, hydro generation and bioenergy. A new renewable electricity support scheme which is currently under development will seek to further diversify this technology mix.
While my Department provides the high-level strategic direction and policy supports to encourage renewable energy development, a number of separate agencies and bodies have a role in the promotion and development of renewable energy projects in Ireland. For example, the development of any renewable project, including wind, requires planning permission from the relevant local planning authority or An Bord Pleanála, as appropriate. Planning permission is a matter between the developer of a renewable project and the relevant planning authority, subject to the planning Acts. Under section 7 of the Planning and Development Act, each planning authority must maintain a detailed register of all planning applications and decisions made. An Bord Pleanála also maintains a register of cases determined by the board, which is available at www.pleanala.ie.
A renewable energy project also requires an authorisation to construct or reconstruct a generating station and a licence to generate from the Commission for Energy Regulation. Applications for authorisations and licences are assessed by the CER ahead of the granting or refusing of an application for planning permission. The conditions imposed by the Regulator must be met by the generator, and compliance is monitored by the CER on an ongoing basis. EirGrid and ESB Networks have a role to ensure that projects can connect to the electricity network and that the renewable energy project can be operated securely on the network for the benefit of all consumers.
The legally separate but interrelated regulatory, planning and operational decisions that are needed to realise a renewable energy project in Ireland requires the involvement of the agencies I have outlined.
The litany of different people responsible for different aspects suggests to me that nobody is in charge of the overall plan regarding wind energy. This is the problem. My starting point is deep scepticism about industrial wind and the emphasis we are putting on it regarding reducing carbon dioxide emissions, which are not decreasing but increasing. We produce 22% of our electricity from wind and 80% of our renewable electricity is due to come from wind. Wind energy producers are getting approximately 80% of public service obligation funding. That is a lot of money, put up by the public. The Minister can confirm the figures. Who is deciding where the money, which is being paid by ordinary people and which does not seem to be delivering results, is going? Where is the overall strategic environmental assessment of the wind energy plan? Where is the cost-benefit analysis as to whether industrial wind is the way to go?
I am deeply sceptical that it is the way to go. Many people say its net impact on reducing CO2 emissions is negligible and that we should be looking in different areas to develop more efficient forms of renewable energy that are better for the environment as well as looking at public transport, insulation, etc.
First, it is not 80%. I do not have the figures to hand but I will get them for the Deputy. We have a number of peat-fired power stations that also avail of supports. It is something that is as close to the heart of Acting Chairman, Deputy Eugene Murphy, as it is to mine. A transition is taking place to biomass there also. On the point Deputy Boyd Barrett makes on CO2 emissions, there are two important reasons to move to renewable energy. One is the need to address emissions and meet our climate targets, but the other is energy security. That is as, if not more, important, in particular in the current climate in regard to the changes in political geography of some of our nearest neighbours. They are issues I have to be conscious of as Minister with responsibility for energy as well as the issues I am responsible for as Minister with responsibility for climate. Coming back to the core point the Deputy makes about whether we are going in the right direction, it is a debate I have had with my officials in the Department. We are asking if we have the right suite of options. While we are proceeding with the renewable heat incentive scheme, we are also going to determine what renewable energy sources we should be looking at into 2025 and 2030. We are now going to carry out a review of the current renewable energy policy.
If we achieve our 2020 targets on renewable electricity, and it is likely that we will, we will have 75% of our electricity at peak wind production coming from wind, which is a variable energy source. It is known now as "the Irish problem" and to go beyond that is very difficult from a technical point of view. All these issues must be considered in that context.
That is exactly the point. It is an intermittent source which still requires us to have other sources. There are serious questions. Wind Aware Ireland, of which, excuse the pun, the Minister will be aware, suggests that, at best, wind can only impact approximately 3% or 4% of our emissions. Nevertheless, a massive proportion of the public money going into renewables is going into this area which seems to be having a negligible effect on CO2 emissions while serious questions arise in regard to the cost-benefit analysis of industrial wind as against a greater emphasis on insulation, passive house standards, free or heavily subsidised public transport to get people to use the system, afforestation, solar and all sorts of other areas. A focus on those areas would have a far bigger impact in terms of both energy security and reducing CO2 emissions, which we are not doing terribly well on.
I find it interesting that the Deputy is making the argument he is. I do not disagree with it because my focus as Minister at the moment is on deep retro-fits of homes. That is why we have €100 million to focus on that in 2017, to deal with energy efficiency and to consider the suite of energy technologies that are there. I got grief earlier on from Deputy Dooley for not going down the electricity generation route. What I am trying to do is to strike a fair balance in regard to the suite of options available to us. Deputy Boyd Barrett is right that there is significant progress we can make on energy efficiency, which is my focus. I am in Tallaght later this week to speak on that very issue, which is important.
The strategic environmental assessment is the reason we have to delay the publication of the revised wind energy regulations. We have to go through the new strategic environmental assessment. I am not sure about the 3% or 4% statistic the Deputy cited in regard to wind but I note that as part of the DS3 programme, it will be possible to improve the carbon efficiency of wind. Hopefully, we will see other options in regard to the storage of wind-generated electricity.
