Dr. Brian Motherway:

I thank the Chairman and committee for their kind invitation. We prepared a short paper for the committee and rather than read it all, I will highlight a few of the main points.

SEAI is the national authority for sustainable energy. We concentrate our efforts on energy efficiency on the one hand and on renewable energy and de-carbonising our energy sources on the other. By sustainable, we mean the core imperative for Ireland to wean itself off an energy system which at the moment is heavily exposed to imported fossil fuels which we are using inefficiently and the price of which is outside our control. I would also make the point that the recent report by the inter-governmental panel on climate change reminds us very strongly that the ultimate goal of energy policy must be de-carbonisation and that our progress towards that goal must be accelerated.

I will make a few remarks about energy efficiency, renewable energy and then jobs. First, as members will be aware, energy efficiency in the home has become a thriving sector in Ireland in recent years. Thousands of people are employed in that sector and are going into homes and buildings and improving their insulation and heating systems. On behalf of the Government, we give out grants and support that work in various ways. We have supported more than 250,000 home energy upgrades in the past five years, including a strong focus on vulnerable homes. We have also given direct advice, training and support to thousands of businesses and public bodies to help them make significant savings in their spend on energy.

One area that the Chairman mentioned which I want to highlight today is our growing work with communities through a programme called Better Energy Communities, which my colleague, Mr. Declan Meally, runs on our behalf. In 2013, our funds in this area supported over 80 projects around the country which led to more than €30 million being spent directly in local communities on energy efficiency and sustainable energy measures. In our submission, we highlighted a couple of projects and provided a full list at the back. I visited a number of these projects around the country myself and the community spirit is striking, with community groups, businesses and local residents associations coming together and doing fantastic work on the ground in terms of making homes and public buildings more comfortable, reducing their energy costs and creating local employment. We believe there is a lot more potential in this area and it is one on which we continue to concentrate. The 2014 call for funding is now open and all of the details are on our website. As with all of our work, we would very much welcome a partnership with the Deputies and Senators in terms of helping us to identify suitable projects or putting people in touch with us. We remain open to conversations about anything we can do in local areas to assist in the delivery of projects.

In terms of energy efficiency as a whole, I remain convinced that there is massive additional potential for work in this area in Ireland. The particular point for Ireland, given that we import most of our energy, is that investment in energy efficiency takes money that we were previously sending abroad to buy energy from others and keeps it in local communities, spending it on local jobs, technologies and interventions. That continues to be an area we would like to exploit.

On renewable energy and starting from the policy perspective, European policy is clear that by 2050 at the latest, Europe's energy systems need to be substantially de-carbonised and renewable energy is at the centre of that. For Ireland, again because we import so much of our energy, this is a particular opportunity to stop sending money abroad to buy fuel and to exploit our own natural resources. We have particularly rich renewable energy resources and are in a position to keep money in the economy, give ourselves greater control over energy costs and reduce our carbon emissions.

As the committee is well aware, Ireland's use of renewable energy has grown steadily in the last few years. The strongest growth has been in wind energy. The simple reason for that is that Ireland is a windy country and has a rich resource. Therefore, wind energy is the cheapest form of renewable energy in Ireland at the moment. We know through our detailed analysis of the sector that our use of renewables in electricity has reduced our imports of fossil fuels by more than €1 billion in the last five years and has reduced our emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 12 million tonnes. It is important to note that wind does not add to consumer prices for electricity. In fact, in recent years our analysis of the sector shows that when gas prices are high, wind energy is actually lowering consumer prices for electricity in Ireland. That is because Ireland has one of the strongest wind energy resources in the world and wind energy is cheap and effective here.

While the evidence is clear that wind is positive for Ireland as a whole, that in no way means that we can be insensitive to local issues and concerns and there is a lot of controversy surrounding wind energy generation at the moment. It is our view that we must find ways to bring the benefits to Ireland that wind energy offers but in an appropriate and acceptable way at a local level. Good planning, local consultation and local benefit are all essential elements of that process.

Bio-energy is also a very important sector for Ireland, particularly in terms of meeting our heat needs. It has a particular benefit in bringing local supply chains for fuel into the economy, especially into rural economies, and therefore is a further example of how sustainable energy can keep money in local communities. The Government will publish a new bio-energy strategy shortly. We are looking at other areas of renewable energy, including solar electricity. We are concentrating a lot on marine energy at the moment because Ireland has a very rich energy resource off its coast. The technology is in the early stages of development so it will be a number of years before wave, tidal and offshore wind energy are making a significant contribution to Ireland's energy mix. We are working on it now and investing in Irish companies now so that when the technologies become mature, it can be a significant employment and wealth generating sector here. The focus of policy and our work in the renewable energy sphere is on meeting the 2020 targets set down under the European Union framework. This, in very broad terms, entails a doubling of our use of renewable energy of all forms - electricity, heat and transport - between now and the end of the decade.

In terms of jobs, obviously employment cuts across all aspects of sustainable energy. The first and most obvious point is that the businesses we have worked with to reduce their energy costs employ more than 300,000 people in Ireland and we have helped those companies to become at least a little more competitive by reducing the amount of energy they use. More than that, there are many exciting emerging opportunities for Irish companies in terms of providing solutions to sustainable energy issues which will find markets not just to help solve Ireland's problems, but also internationally, in the context of the technologies and services that are growing rapidly. This was very visible recently at our recent annual energy show at the RDS when we had thousands of businesses coming together to discuss the latest technologies and products that are emerging. We are working with the enterprise agencies at the moment to focus on the points in the supply chains and investment chains for sustainable energy which will offer particularly strong opportunities for Irish company involvement so that we can focus our efforts on helping companies in the most promising areas.

Undoubtedly we face very significant energy challenges in terms of our dependence on imports, our costs and the environmental impact. That means that all forms of actions on both efficiency and renewables are absolutely required, with urgency. However, we do have certain advantages in the global movement towards sustainability in energy, including our rich renewable resources and our strengths in information and communications technology and knowledge services. Progress on the ground in retrofits, better energy communities and our growth of renewable energy gives us grounds for optimism in terms of the opportunities that can emerge from the challenges that Ireland faces.

As I mentioned earlier, we have provided a full list of all of the community projects we funded last year. We will also provide members with a small brochure which highlights our work in that area.