Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I hear what Deputy Moynihan says about the exhortation he would offer to State companies in terms of an expectation that they could play a more significant role than they are playing. I had representations earlier this week from my party colleague, Senator Heffernan, and Deputies Neville and O'Donovan about a company in west Limerick, which may well have prompted the Deputy's question. It is similar terrain in any event. I did not have an opportunity because of the week that was in it to meet them but I will meet them next week and examine the points Deputy Moynihan is making. It goes back to our earlier discussion about Bord na Mona in the sense that the company is not in a position to make a bigger contribution in present financial circumstances on the elephant grass issue.

Deputy Farrell misunderstands the figures I gave. The 40% renewable energy target relates to electricity generation while the 6% target relates to the electricity, heat and transport sectors combined. At the beginning of the year, 17.6% of our electricity was being generated from renewables and we are relatively sanguine that we will meet the 40% renewables target by 2020 in the electricity generation area.

I will not make pledges in respect of heat or transport because there are complex issues, one of which relates to agriculture and the fact that following the end of the milk quota regime, there may be greater capacity in that sector in the future. The 44 MW to which the Deputy referred relates to biomass; it is not the overall total. We have 2,000 MW of generation in place and the further 2,000 MW necessary to meet the 40% electricity generation target will be doable. The industry has raised issues about how we might make better use of biomass and so on to contribute in the heat sector and particular issues have to be dealt with in the transport sector.

The figure of 6% refers to all energy consumed from renewable sources in the three sectors but in terms of electricity generation, we maintain we have a good prospect of meeting our target.

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