Renewable Energy Generation
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

I will respond first to Deputy McCarthy, who tabled the question. Most of us are for sustainable, clean, renewable energy to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel.
We have had a good discussion and questions here about energy affordability. How do we drive that affordability? We drive that affordability by investing in our grid, by delivering projects like the North-South interconnector, by expanding our grid and grid resilience, and by expanding our renewables offering. There are communities that feel they have a concentration of different energy sources in their area. As the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, said in response to Deputy Ward, it is about looking at things like community benefit funds. I visited two battery installations in County Offaly last week, which are fully compliant with EU regulations. We need battery storage to deploy our energy at the right times. We need more renewables. We need onshore and offshore wind and onshore solar, or else we will continue importing gas from third countries.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24