Éamon Ó Cuív on community gain and microgeneration feed-in tariff
Éamon Ó Cuív challenged the minister on how community benefit payments from renewable projects will be handled and on the absence of a clear feed-in tariff for microgeneration. He pressed for clear definitions of which communities should benefit and for a viable feed-in model for rural microgenerators.
Questions on community gain payments
Éamon Ó Cuív asked who will control and spend community benefit money from renewable projects - whether companies will be allowed to spend funds themselves or whether payments will be handed to a LEADER company or a local authority. He expressed opposition to large companies dispensing "largesse" on a statutory basis without clear oversight.
Defining the beneficiary community
He stressed the need to define which community should gain from projects given the localised pain they can cause, and called for clarity to ensure a fair distribution of funds. The question of how to define the benefiting community was presented as central to any community gain policy.
Offshore wind and coastal impacts
Ó Cuív raised offshore wind explicitly, asking whether community gain arrangements would extend to offshore generation and whether coastal communities would be recognised as beneficiaries. He warned against mechanisms that could transfer payments away from the local communities most impacted by projects.
Microgeneration and feed-in tariff policy
He also pressed the minister on microgeneration, particularly for rural households using small-scale solar or wind to power homes and charge vehicles. Ó Cuív asked what the policy is on a decent feed-in tariff, citing established models abroad that could allow individuals to feed surplus power back into the grid and receive payment.
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Minister, I wish this was a real question and answer session that we had an opportunity to tease things out but I want to raise a number of issues first of all obviously we have to reduce our carbon footprint and we need to get on with the job but in doing so we must involve communities so if it's specific two specific questions one in relation to community gain who's going to get to spend the money is it the company companies get to spend the money that will be statually obliged or will they be told to hand that money over to somebody like a leader company or a local authority to spend I don't like the idea of the big companies coming with largesse that they're going to be statually obliged to spend the second one is how do you define the community that should gain because of the pain and we need to clarify that issue and be clear and that there's a fair spend of it and the third issue is I take it this will extend to offshore offshore wind generation so again it becomes even more important to define what communities will gain will it be the coastal community or will in some great metamorphosis will they manage to transfer the money far far away from the local community that's impacted the second question I'd like to ask you relates into relates to the issue of feed-in I heard you talk about community involvement in energy but the other one is micro generation where individuals particularly in rural Ireland can get involved in micro generation through either solar or through wind energy and what is the situation in relation to a good decent feed-in tariff like they have in other countries and there are very very good models of this we don't need to reinvent the wheel it could be hugely attractive people could produce enough electricity for their own uses for charging up their motor vehicles and also for feeding into the tariff when they didn't need electricity I'd like to find out for you what is the policy on the feed-in tariff for micro generation
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