Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 69 and 80 together.

As I mentioned earlier, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, has lead responsibility for Government policy on meeting Ireland's target under the Kyoto Protocol. The energy sector will make its contribution to meeting our obligations under Kyoto through participation in the EU emissions trading scheme. The problem of dealing with high fossil fuel dependence as carbon constraints become more pressing is not unique to Ireland. At EU and international levels, energy policy is focusing increasingly on the development of alternative renewable energy sources, increasing energy efficiency and managing energy demand in response to the need to limit CO2 emissions.

There are also key imperatives for Irish energy policy. We are on target to meet our objective of increasing electricity generated from renewable sources to a minimum of 13.2% of total consumption by 2010. I expect that wind generation will remain the dominant technology in the short term for delivering this target. The forthcoming energy policy paper will address strategies to develop the renewable energy base. In addition, as announced in the recent budget, I am putting in place measures designed to complement and expand on initiatives already in place in the renewable electricity, transport and heat sectors. These new programmes will assist the enhanced deployment of renewable sources of energy over the next five years in the bioenergy, biofuels, CHP and domestic energy sectors.

Energy efficiency has a significant role to play in reducing both energy demand and lowering emissions and is often described as the cheapest and cleanest method of meeting these objectives. It is essential that we continue to raise awareness of this issue right across the economy and bring about a step-change in the way that we use energy. We intend to highlight this, within the Department in terms of an active campaign, towards the end of this year.

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