I thank the committee for inviting us to come before it to present our case. I hope we will not detain members for too long. We forwarded information to the committee which I will summarise for the benefit of members.
Irish Rural Link is a national organisation, working on a voluntary basis, which was founded in 1991. Our aim is to promote a vision of vibrant, inclusive and sustainable rural communities that contribute to an equitable and just society. Ours is one of the organisations involved in social partnership. We promote the rural agenda and it is our goal to ensure fairness is the main objective at all times.
The main thrust of our presentation is job creation through the exploitation of renewable energy resources. The submission we sent to the committee in advance describes the reality of rural life, particularly in the context of employment. The economic base of rural areas is quite narrow. The rapid rise in unemployment across all sectors will be most difficult to resolve in rural areas where there is an over-reliance on primary industries such as agriculture, construction and low-level manufacturing which, unfortunately, are in decline. In the past there was a huge rise in the level of part-time employment. As members are aware, such employment was provided in the construction industry in which opportunities are dwindling. As a result, the number of jobs on offer has decreased.
Farmers who rely solely on farm incomes have a higher probability of poverty and deprivation. In common with other organisations which promote the rural agenda such as the IFA and others, we are aware that many more farmers are likely to apply for farm assist payments. Non-farmers who live in rural areas have also discovered that the jobs to which they used to have access are disappearing.
Rural communities have a strong track record of innovative thinking and adapting to changing circumstances. In that context, I cite the success achieved in bringing electricity, water and other services to rural communities. Efforts in this regard were very much voluntary in nature and community-based.
On current Government policy on energy, the White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland, which was published in 2007 contains commitments to renewable energy targets, including 33% of electricity generation from renewable resources, 12% of heat generated from renewable resources and a bio-fuels penetration target in the transport sector of at least 10% by the year 2020. Building Ireland's Smart Economy and the rural development programme also contain commitments in respect of energy targets, etc.
With regard to future opportunities, it is internationally accepted that renewable energy projects have the potential to create large numbers of jobs. We argue that initiatives aimed at taking advantage of these opportunities must be put in place immediately. The employment that will result from availing of such opportunities can be created in several ways. First, employment can be created in the sector in the areas of manufacturing, installation, maintenance and education. Full details in this regard are provided in our submission which is also available on our website, www.irishrurallink.ie. Another way in which employment can be created is through export potential. The Western Development Commission indicates that using wood to produce heat energy could be worth an additional €15 million per annum and lead to the creation of 900 additional jobs in rural areas. As members can see, some research has been carried out in respect of this matter. The IFA suggests there could be 5,000 jobs in biomass while the Marine Institute says 1,900 jobs can be created and we have detailed an example of what can be done in Denmark where more than 20,000 are employed in the wind sector. We should study the Denmark case and I ask the committee to examine the Danish structure to create jobs through wind, much of which was done at community level in a co-operative structure. We can go into the detail later if members have questions.
Regional income benefit is obvious. By establishing local and regional co-operatives, the money and benefits are kept in the region. Unfortunately, in terms of rural planning and development, etc., Ireland has the most nationally based infrastructure. Everything is national whether it is the transport or energy businesses. This morning we saw how decisions made at national level affect transport users at local level. That shows there is no regional input whatsoever into planning. The system in Denmark is useful in proving how things can be done on a regional basis.
An environmental dividend would result, which relates to us meeting a range of obligations to which we are tied. Equally, the development of local high quality energy infrastructure would result. There are huge advantages to looking at how energy can be created at regional level. A rural development model has been developed by five countries under the tutelage of the Carnegie Foundation, which we could use as a good structure to support such development.
There must be room for local energy audits. The great resistance generated by communities is when they hear they have to adapt to new ideas in rural areas, particularly when they face a carbon tax or an additional cost. There is huge resistance by rural communities to extra initiatives, mainly because they are usually blamed for producing too much carbon with its inhabitants travelling too many miles or using too much electricity or living in one off houses and so on. These charges are laid and some people might say that is fair enough but the community is never involved in coming to terms with possible solutions, one of which is learning how to conduct a local energy audit. This was done in County Westmeath and we will detail this later. Audits involve the community in looking at its own area. We could look at our own area in terms of saving energy. It also has the added dimension of dealing with a major problem, which is fuel poverty, and there are instances, particularly in areas of the country where turf production is ceasing, that there will be fuel poverty and the community, rather than being asked to help in the solution of this problem, is, instead, told what to do either by Parliament or a range of EU directives, which have been passed by Dáil Éireann.
We are asking for local authorities to be involved in the development of regional energy audits. That would go a long way to educate people about understanding the need to provide renewable energy sources.
The presentation outlines a number of case studies and co-operatives and policy recommendations. Mr. Nally was involved in the Westmeath audit and he will speak to the next few slides.