Ms Julie O'Neill:

I will first dispense with the issue of political parties. I am not and never have been a member of any political party. I have been privileged to have worked with politicians of all parties.

On the Ryanair issue, I do not believe a conflict arises. Aviation is part of the way in which we move people around the planet. The challenge is to do this as efficiently and sustainably as possible. Interestingly, an independent report produced recently in the United States shows that Ryanair is the most energy efficient of the 20 largest airlines in the world and produces the lowest footprint per passenger. Issues such as the use of the most up-to-date fleet and achieving fuel efficiency and higher passenger load make a big difference. There is a very wide range of performance in the aviation sector and I am pleased that energy efficiency is a priority for Ryanair, the best of the top 20 airlines in the world and the best and greenest airline in Europe.

On the future agenda, energy efficiency and sources of renewable energy should be separated. As the Deputy stated, energy efficiency is an important part of what we are trying to achieve. Achieving the target of a 20% improvement in energy efficiency by 2020 is challenging. We are nearly halfway there and meeting it will involve private homes, businesses and a wide range of other ways to reduce demand for energy.

I fully concur with the Deputy that the warmer homes scheme is a very important initiative. I cannot remember the figure but I understand approximately 150,000 of the 300,000 grants were provided for fuel-poor homes. While the scheme is targeted at people who own their homes, I take the Deputy's point about local authority housing. In recent years, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has been placing more focus on new better energy communities approaches. These provide an opportunity to work in partnership with a number of players, both public and private, and have certainly widened the range of impacts we can have on fuel-poor homes. This is certainly an issue we will take on board as we formulate our new strategy in the context and against the backdrop of the Government's forthcoming White Paper.

I agree with the Deputy that there are significant differences in housing stock and a combination of insulation, more efficient boilers and consumer behaviour can make significant impacts, as can impacts for business. The Deputy will be aware that most of the businesses locating and developing in Ireland want to have a lower carbon footprint because it is good for the environment, is a good part of their sales pitch, if one likes, to the customer base they are trying to develop and also reduces their overall costs.

On the role the different energy technologies play, the Deputy will be aware that we are trying to meet a range of different targets to reach the overall target of having renewable sources contribute 16% of energy generation. These include a renewables target of 40% for electricity, 12% for heat and 10% for transport. We are roughly halfway towards meeting this target and it is clear that it will be highly challenging to move from the current position to the position we need to reach if we are to achieve our 2020 targets. There is no doubt that wind, which accounts for approximately 18% of electricity generation, is by far the largest contributor to energy from the renewable sector, which contributes more than 20% overall. Wind is currently the most efficient way in which renewable technologies can contribute to energy generation. Solar power and other renewable energies such as wave power contribute only small amounts. Other technologies are still emerging.

At the moment it is difficult to see how we could achieve renewable electricity targets without significant expansion in wind. I believe bioenergy has a role and could achieve, perhaps, up to 5% by 2020. One of the problems with bioenergy is that we also need it to meet our heating target. The best return can be achieved if we use locally grown sources of biomass and use them in heating. The committee will probably be aware that a policy document is out for discussion as to how support for that could be increased. There are real opportunities in creating sustainable energy communities. I know there are proposals around Moneypoint and there are suggestions that it could possibly be converted to biomass. All those proposals should be looked at and, ultimately, the responsibility lies with the project promoter.

I would utter a few words of caution. In order to meet the demand of a plant such as Moneypoint for biomass, one would be talking about the coverage of two countries, perhaps, my own County Wexford and Carlow covered with fuel crops to meet that demand. Realistically, we would be very heavily dependent on imported biofuels to meet the demand of that plant. That is a difficulty, first, because it would divert the scarce resources in biomass grown locally from heating and, second, because it increases reliance on expensive imports. It would also have very significant capital costs. I am not hung up on any one form of energy; I am open to all of them. At the moment, biomass and wind contribute almost equally to meeting our renewable energy targets but they contribute in different ways; biomass primarily in heat, wind primarily in energy. From my point of view, as we develop a strategy beyond 2020 and into 2030 and beyond, one is always looking for the changes in technology that will create other options. As we stand, and based on the state of the science, and the relatively slow changes in technology that will produce dramatically different alternatives, it seems we will require significant wind energy to meet our electricity targets and significant biomass energy to meet our heat targets.