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

I would welcome a debate on this matter. Many colleagues in the House regard it as somewhat arcane and that should not be the approach to our marine wealth or to the possibilities offered by offshore wind, wave and tidal energy for the future. The report may have taken longer to be published than one would have liked. It is, however, inconsistent to state that publication of the report is belated, particularly when I was previously asked to put the matter out for public consultation again before publication.

I previously indicated that I intend to introduce an initial market support scheme from 2016 and that this will be funded from the public service obligation levy to the tune of €260 per megawatt hour and strictly limited to 30 MW for ocean wave and tidal energy that does not impose any significant material additional cost on the energy consumer. Work is ongoing in the context of estimating the cost of wind energy. In the EU communication paper that was published a couple of weeks ago, it is stated that the estimated marginal cost will range between €1 and €16. In the case of Ireland it will be €1 - the EU went out of its way to highlight this - while in the case of Germany it will be €16. I think I am correct in stating the latter but the Deputy should not hold me to it. There is further work to be done on the economics involved and Deputy Broughan is correct in stating that we should clarify the position.

I am not referring to the Deputy when I say this but all kinds of people say they favour decarbonising the energy system and developing renewable sources of energy. However, they do not want these sources to be the ones under discussion or those located near their homes. It is a case of them asking why we should have onshore wind energy when we can have offshore wind energy and why do we need offshore wind energy when we could be utilising biomass or solar energy. One is always a step away from committing those who claim to see the merit of exploiting renewable and indigenously occurring resources to stating that they do not want them in their backyard.

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