Departmental Schemes Dail Éireann — 2025-07-17 ============================================================ Edward Timmins (FG), Wicklow A little over a year ago, as the Minister knows, the Government started to roll out a scheme of supplying free solar panels to schools. This is a very worthwhile initiative. However, there is a problem. Many schools do not have smart meters, which means they cannot sell excess electricity back to the grid. This installation is taking way too long. I know of a school that will not get a smart meter until 2028. Many schools are now only getting 25% of the electricity generated as a credit, whereas they should be earning much more. Can the Government work to improve the time for installation by the ESB? --- 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/2025-07-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:58+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-07-17