I want to ask the Taoiseach about an issue arising from information I gathered from parliamentary questions to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, which reveal a significant delay in the roll-out of smart meters for people who have solar panels installed in their homes. More than 1,000 families are waiting up to four months for a smart meter and close to 1,000 have been waiting more than four months for one. The consequence is that if a person is eligible for a smart meter but does not have one installed, through no fault of his or her own, he or she is not entitled to be paid for the surplus energy that is being exported back to the grid. Therefore, we have a perverse situation whereby these people are not being paid. They are giving electricity for free back to the grid and not being paid through no fault of their own.

There is a very simple solution to this. While the smart meter programme is getting up to speed - we are speeding that up - simply pay people the deemed demand to which they will be entitled. If people are not eligible for a smart meter because their house cannot take one for some reason, they will be paid based on an estimate of how much they would be generating and exporting. Why do we not just expand that to include all those who are waiting and pay them the deemed amount?

It sounds like a reasonable suggestion. I am not across the detail of this, but I will make sure somebody from my office gets in touch with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it and comes back to the Deputy with a further response.