Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Everyone accepts that pioneering work in its early stages is being carried out in this field and that the west of Ireland is a very good location for this kind of development. Is the Minister convinced that we are providing enough in terms of support for individual companies developing prototypes, particularly in the area of wave energy and in the area of tidal energy? I get the impression that Portugal has an attractive feed-in tariff arrangement that is attracting people to avail of the facility to develop prototypes there. Has the Minister looked at how other countries support this kind of pioneering innovation? It is at such an early stage that it seems we should be doing this as we are ideally located.

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