Electric Vehicles
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
============================================================

Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

That is a good idea. I am happy to do that. In relation to renewables and the acceleration of renewables, we need to continue to reduce our dependence on fossil and imported fossil. That is good for climate, our economy and people's pockets. The good news is that we have doubled our wind capacity in a ten-year period. We now have over 8 GW of renewable energy connected to our system. We have about 1.4 GW of solar on rooftops. Solar is growing at a significant rate. In March of this year, 50% of our electricity was generated by renewables. We need to accelerate that further. We are doing that. We are doing that through measures like the Planning and Development Act.
Earlier this week I visited Bord na Móna's Derrinlough wind farm, which is one of the largest wind farms in the country. Bord na Móna is generating over 1 GW of renewable energy. It was a fossil-based peat company that has transitioned fully to green energy. In its pipeline of development and planning, it has over 5 GW of further renewable sources. On the offshore renewables, we need to get them into construction this decade. Regarding the horizon, the outlook is positive. I agree with the Deputy that we need to accelerate it. I will write to the transport committee post my meeting with Professor Caulfield.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30