An tOrd Gnó (Atógáil) - Order of Business (Resumed)
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I know the Minister for agriculture is here but I will take it on the basis that this morning, the Cabinet had a discussion on this issue, acknowledging, first of all, the significant take-up of TAMS by farmers in respect of solar. More than 20% of the expenditure overall, out of €160 million, has been on the solar capital investment scheme. That shows there is a real hunger there among farmers.
The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is engaging with the Minister for agriculture. They will try to work it out together and then we will go to the Minister for public expenditure. In any event, we are onto this and I think there is an issue here. It is an issue for everybody. The more renewables we can install, we can reduce costs for users of energy and that is something we have to do at pace. TAMS is a good potential vehicle for solar but, that said, there are limits under the existing scheme because of the fact that 64,000 applications have been received to date. Three times the number was received.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19