Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take the Deputy's point about binding sectoral targets. We are engaging with my colleagues, the Ministers for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Transport, Tourism and Sport and Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government to give consideration to putting a process in place. I do not think we should be looking at binding targets at the moment. It is a long way to 2030 and 2050. It is also important to remember that we are currently in negotiations in respect of these targets. Do targets need to be put in place? Absolutely. That is something I am working on with my ministerial colleagues.

On the renewable energy targets, the Deputy is right that electricity is a 40% target. At the moment we are at 27.3% and the projection is that by 2020 we will have reached our 40%. In respect of heat, the target is 12%. We will be somewhere between 10% and 11% based on current projections. For transport, the target is 10% and we will be somewhere between 8% and 9%, based on projections. I acknowledge we are going to fall short according to current projections and we have work to do. We are not, however, significantly short, based on the projections. I would confidently predict that we will reach our target on the electricity side if we can deal with the international challenge, now called the Irish problem, of having a 75% loading on the grid of a volatile energy source, namely, wind. That work is ongoing. We will soon reach a 65% loading and, with technological developments and the DS3 programme, we expect to hit 75%.

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