Mr. Mark Griffin:

I said "ducts" but it would not surprise me if we had the occasional duck or hen around the place either. A considerable amount of work has been done on the issue by NewERA. The work is not finalised but it is beginning to show that a substantial amount of infrastructure is in State ownership, spread throughout a range of State agencies, and we need to examine this to see how to leverage it in the development of State intervention. In so far as how this State intervention would be funded, we are examining whether the Exchequer would need to commit to it exclusively or whether it could be funded or part-funded by the infrastructure fund or the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, and whether pension funds would be interested in getting involved in the business. This is contingent on how commercial a proposition it is. The NPRF and the Irish strategic investment fund will invest on the basis a proposition is commercial and there will be a commercial return. It may well be some of the interventions we must make are not commercial by nature. We need to examine this. It is an issue in which the Department is heavily engaged at present.

With regard to the renewable energy sector and whether we are putting all our eggs in the large project basket, the big interventions will be in wind energy and we have seen many of these projects put in place. Significant investment has been made in wind energy in recent years and at present we have approximately 2,100 MW installed wind capacity. We need approximately 3,500 MW or 4,000 MW to meet our 2020 targets, so there is still a bit of headroom in terms of what needs to be achieved. Through the Gate 3 process we have enough planned capacity to meet our 2020 targets.

Deputy Coffey is correct that there are potentially significant opportunities in offshore, wave and tidal energy.

The Minister will shortly publish an offshore renewable energy development plan which will consider what needs to be done to enable the conditions for effective offshore wave and tidal capacity as well as offshore wind capacity. We have committed moneys from the Department's Vote to ocean research development and demonstration projects. We will have spent €26.3 million by 2016, an increase of €16.8 million on what was originally budgeted, on development sites, for example, the Coastal and Marine Research Centre, CMRC, in Cork and the Marine Institute test sites in Cork and Galway. Investment has been made and more is to come. We are hopeful there will be significant developments in this field during the coming years.

The Deputy raised the issue of public awareness. As a principle, I am supportive of public awareness. Interventions need to be targeted. There was some criticism of what was delivered by the Power of One campaign of a number of years ago. The Department has lessons to learn about the effectiveness of that process. The Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, also has an awareness dimension.

I understand the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, has embarked on an awareness campaign in recent weeks to promote the availability of retrofit grants. We have secured additional money for that purpose in 2014. The SEAI wants to communicate to householders the fact these grant schemes exist, how to access them and their value to householders.

The general issue of public consultation is critical, given the reaction of communities in recent months to the proposed export project in the midlands. For example, communities have expressed concerns about the Grid Link project. Public consultation is a fundamental principle underpinning the Government's approach. One need only read the policy statement published by the Minister last year on behalf of the Government that made crystal clear the importance of ensuring early and adequate engagement with communities. My opinion is the agencies involved need to overcommunicate. One cannot communicate or engage enough with communities. The concerns that have been expressed are genuine and need to be addressed.

Committee members will be aware the Department started a public consultation process in October on the planning framework that will surround the export project if an intergovernmental agreement is concluded by the Irish and British Governments. The deadline for the first phase was last Friday. As of late last week, we had received 200 submissions, which is great. It is important that people have an opportunity to engage on this project. There will be at least two further stages of consultation as part of the programme. A strategic environmental assessment and an appropriate assessment will also be undertaken. A robust planning framework will be put in place to allow the public full access to the consultation process. This is important and the steps taken by the Department in this regard have been constructive.