Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The 2009 EU renewable energy directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020. To meet this target, Ireland is committed to providing 40% of its electricity energy, 12% of its heating energy and 10% of its transport power from renewable sources. Provisional figures provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland for 2014 show that 8.6% of Ireland's overall energy requirement was met by renewable energy. While the progress to date is encouraging, significant challenges remain, especially in the heat and transport sectors. Meeting our renewable electricity targets will require the delivery of critical grid infrastructure and the construction of additional renewable electricity generation capacity.

To further support the use of renewable electricity and heat, the Department launched two separate consultations on 31 July 2015 on support schemes, one for renewable electricity and one for a proposed renewable heat incentive. While the initial phase of both consultations closed on 18 September 2015, there will be two further opportunities to contribute at key stages in the design of any new scheme. Subject to Government approval and state aid clearance from the European Commission, the new schemes will become available in 2016.

Ireland aims to meet its target for renewable transport mainly through the use of sustainable biofuels. Increasing usage of electric vehicles will also make a contribution. Further increases to the obligation rate in the biofuels obligation scheme will be required in the context of achieving our 2020 target. The Minister, Deputy White, intends to initiate a consultation on this over the coming weeks.

The Minister is finalising a White Paper on energy policy, which will be published by the end of the year. The overall objective of the White Paper is to provide a coherent joined-up policy statement aimed at ensuring that Ireland has a modern, sustainable, secure and cost-effective integrated energy system which will support the transition to a largely decarbonised society and economy by 2050. The White Paper will be set in the context of broader EU energy policy, as recently articulated in both the Energy Union strategy and the EU 2030 climate and energy framework document for coherent climate and energy policies.

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