Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The Deputy is correct in that there was a significant change in the programme for Government so that Science Foundation Ireland is due to take a much larger role and to build capability in the basic energy research area. There are additional new areas where I want to see research, perhaps not at a commercial level, as that would be more a matter for Enterprise Ireland, but at a level above basic level research. A key area in this regard is that of ocean energy research.

This is a multi-annual programme and therefore it is not necessarily for investment in 2008 or with a view to achieving immediate results. It is part of a four-phase programme which began in 2005 and will deal with the development of ocean energy from 2008 to 2010. This is moving to pre-commercial grid connectivity, which is where our spending will be concentrated with a view to moving ever closer to commercial application. The return we will see on this may not be delivered in terms of actual electricity produced until 2012 or later.

We are overseeing a multi-annual programme whereby we must invest now for the future. There are a number of additional programmes which I am looking to support and launch in the new year, many of which will come under the auspices of SEI and which may involve research in the construction or electricity networking and metering areas. These do not necessarily have immediate commercial application but involve research which seeks to push out new technologies in innovative ways. It is this range of different programmes that I want to help introduce with this budget.

Ocean energy is an area where we must further scale up from the level of investment we are considering here. This is just a first stage and it will take time to get the contracts and materials in place to spend some of the money available here. It will be a multi-annual programme which will require greater resources in following years as the level of investments that will be made will be very significant.

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