Public Consultation on Good Practice Principles for Community Benefit Funds under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme

The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is a key policy initiative to deliver on the Government’s Climate Action Plan commitment to fuelling our economy with 70% renewable electricity by 2030. A key emphasis of the new scheme is that communities should benefit directly from all the renewable electricity projects being supported in the scheme.

An important feature of RESS is that all projects must establish a Community Benefit Fund to be used for the wider environmental, social and economic well-being of the local community.

We are publishing a set of Good Practice Principles to ensure successful operation and delivery of these Funds, and we are looking for feedback on this draft guidance through this consultation.

The draft guidance consists of two documents, a guidance handbook and accompanying appendices, this material includes a list of consultation questions for you to consider.

Feedback is welcome from all interested parties on any aspect of the draft document. Please ensure that your submission includes:

• entity or individual details, address and email address
• the section of the consultation document which the issue or comment relates to
• a suggestion on what amendments should be made to the section to improve the guidance

The closing date for submissions is 5.30pm 24 May 2021

Submissions should be sent by email to CommunityRESS@decc.gov.ie or by post to:

Community Benefit Fund Consultation

Electricity Policy Division

Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

29-31 Adelaide Road

Dublin

Ireland

D02 X285

In order to facilitate the gathering of feedback on the draft, we are hosting two webinars or Virtual Town Halls for the general public. Register your interest in participating at the links below:

We are committed to engaging with stakeholders in a clear, open and transparent manner. Any person or organisation can make a submission in relation to this consultation. All submissions and feedback will be considered before the final version of the Good Practice Principles is published.

Please note that responses to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI), Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007-2014 (AIE) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please also note that the Department intends to publish the contents of all submissions received to this consultation on its website. The Department will redact personal data prior to publication. In responding to this consultation, parties should clearly indicate where their responses contain personal information, commercially sensitive information or confidential information which they would not wish to be released under FOI, AIE or otherwise published.

We would like to draw your attention to the Department's Data Privacy Notice which is available on our website and explains how and when we collect personal data, why we do so and how we treat this information. It also explains your rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how you can exercise those rights.