Renewable Energy Generation
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-22
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Roderic O'Gorman (GP), Dublin West

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I am not sure if the response from the Department is going to give a huge amount of reassurance. Ireland's energy transition depends on public participation and the success of microgeneration has shown that people are willing to invest their own resources to support climate action when the policy framework is clear and fair. Many people have pointed out their concerns at the pace at which their feed-in tariff is diminishing at exactly the time that the retail cost of electricity is actually skyrocketing. This raises questions of fairness and undermines people's confidence in the system. I think they may look at the ever-widening gap between the feed-in tariff paid for exports and the unit cost of electricity for households, and, again, that raises those questions of fairness.
What we need now is a discussion about strengthening the value proposition for household renewables and not diminishing it. I urge the Government to examine options like a guaranteed minimum clean export guarantee rate; greater transparency and standardisation of export tariffs; and additional protections against any unfair reductions in export payments.
Households generating renewable electricity are making a positive contribution to the grid every day. They should not be treated as passive consumers. They are energy producers, climate actors and partners in the transition to cleaner energy. The Government should be making clear that their contribution will continue to be recognised and rewarded through a fair, transparent and durable clean export guarantee framework and through the continuation of the tax exemption for microgeneration of electricity.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-22