Adrian Weckler

So it's a no brainer.

People have different views on solar and they're in the weeds arguments about the origin of the panels and the contribution they make to the overall footprint for the ordinary household.

And not every household can take solar.

But for the ordinary household that can take solar, it is absolute no-brainer to put panels on.

And it's incomprehensible why the subsidy is only €1,800 and why the government doesn't roll out.

Just one word in terms of intervention, what we could do about it, and I don't like to be the voice to say this, but I am aware that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council pointed out that Ireland's underlying deficit, that's the amount of money that we have, excluding the windfall taxes that we make from the big tech companies, is going to rise this year to around 13 billion euro.

So

Over the last three years, three companies, Microsoft, Apple and Eli Lilly, have represented about half of all of Ireland's corporate taxes.

The gap between what Irish companies, what we actually make for ourselves and what these big tech companies actually give us in windfall taxes to pay for hospitals and roads and interventions is now widening.

you know, that's an unpopular thing to say.

A little bit, yeah.

So I am in favour of subsidies for solar.

I am in favour of easing things.

And we can look at the fuel protests and the 750 million that we've done to ease that.

We are starting to spend the kind of money that if one or two of these companies decides to cut back and to leave, we actually can't support ourselves in the country.

In my opinion, no.

I have a visceral dislike of that.

And this is the reason in a time of trauma or if you have to go, I mean, I've had lots of examples in my own life in recent years of this.

You go if you're bereaved or if you're going to the hospital for a particular reason.

it hits you in a visceral way if you then feel like you're paying for a commercial service or you have to pay to enter the premises.