Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 25: To ask the Minister for Jobs; Enterprise and Innovation the steps he has taken to develop the green economy. [21162/11]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The "green economy" is a term used to categorise a range of economic activities which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions, better resource usage, and respect for the environment. It covers a range of activities from carbon trading to energy efficient and environmentally friendly products, renewable energies and eco-tourism.

The programme for Government makes commitments to supporting the sector, including through increasing support for energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes, establishing Ireland as a renewable manufacturing hub to attract international and domestic investment, and expanding renewable energy generation to achieve our renewable energy targets. Clearly, implementation of this agenda spans several Departments and State agencies.

As part of the jobs initiative, the Minister for Finance announced that an additional €30 million would be invested in the national retrofit home energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes this year. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has indicated that this initiative will support an additional 2,000 jobs in 2011. Other measures announced in the jobs initiative help to promote jobs in green tourism, such as halving the lower rate of employer's PRSI until the end of 2013 on jobs that pay up to €356 per week, removing the travel tax and cutting the lower rate of VAT.

The green economy is an area which could become strategically important for Ireland at a global level. We have a number of particular strengths which can realise jobs and growth opportunities and contribute to export-led growth. The sector already employs 18,775 people and the value of the Irish market in these sub-sectors was estimated at €3 billion in 2010. However, the value of the sector globally is set to increase rapidly, driven by a range of factors, including EU directives and regulations, rising energy costs, increased investment in environmental services and infrastructure, consumer preferences, and climate change and international agreements.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The Department's agencies, namely, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, have established units dedicated to working with both indigenous and multinational companies in the so-called cleantech sector. A practical example of the success of Enterprise Ireland's supports for the sector was seen in last week's announcement of the creation of 145 jobs in County Galway in the manufacturing of wind turbines. Another notable development is that green financial services are part of the new strategy for the IFSC which was launched by the Taoiseach last week.

A number of policy issues need to be addressed to realise the potential of the sector. Some relate to planning and licensing. Others relate to the capacity of the electricity grid and the price for delivery of renewable energy. I will work with other colleagues to develop this policy framework.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The green energy sector has lost a little bit of focus owing to the current major economic turmoil around the world, and possibly due to the demise of the Green Party in this House as well. It remains an untapped resource in Ireland. There were discussions in Britain about whether that country would look to Ireland to provide some of its energy from natural resources in future. Global energy security and global climate change remain a major issue.

I missed part of the Minister of State's answer. I think he mentioned the number of jobs that were created. Could he repeat that? How many jobs does the Government seek to create over the next five years? What level of investment does it plan to make in that time?

Concerns were expressed that some organisations, due to the reduction in their industries, have been able to enjoy benefits worth about €700 million from those carbon credits. That comes from the taxpayers' pockets, so the Minister of State might comment on that as well.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I agree with the Deputy on the change of emphasis over recent years, but I disagree with him on the Green Party's agenda. All parties in the House have been engaged with the agenda for a long time. An additional 2,000 jobs were created in 2011. A Cabinet sub-committee is dealing directly with this area and it gives Government impetus to it.

There is a challenge for Ireland in the next phase of commitments which we have to meet on carbon reduction. That should give rise to new opportunities in this field. It is not possible to quantify how many jobs will be created. No one can do that and it would be unrealistic to do so. However, I agree with the Deputy in another respect. A SWOT analysis was carried out and it showed that there was a lack of coherence in overall policy due to a large number of State and local agencies being involved, and there was some fragmentation of the research base. That is now being firmly taken in hand.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I understand the difficulties in putting a figure on the number of jobs to be created in any area. However, none of the parties had any problems in doing that before the election. They were very confident in telling us how many jobs would be created in each sector over the next while. While we cannot be confident about the number of jobs to be created, it is important for organisations to set objectives and targets and then work towards those.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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We are out of time, but I will allow a very brief question from Deputy Boyd Barrett.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I would like the Minister of State to consider a fiscally neutral proposal put to me by someone from Bettystown in County Meath, and it relates to the retrofit scheme. The proposal is that we introduce a loan scheme to cover the cost of insulating people's houses.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Taoiseach launched the strategy for the international financial services industry 2011-16. One of the initiatives is the creation of the Green IFSC whereby we pin down areas in which there are new opportunities ranging from carbon management, IP commercialisation, private equity investment to green tech fund management. The Government is engaging in this space. It is impossible, realistically, to set a finite target for job creation. The main point is that we are setting down the policy framework by which we can drive these agendas and ensure strong political co-ordination and coherence.

On Deputy Boyd Barrett's proposal, I respectfully ask him to make contact with the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, and that he seek to meet him to ask him to consider it.