Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator MacSharry in paying tribute to the Special Olympians who will be in the House today. They are being supported by members of the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. As a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly I believe that support is welcome and I hope all Members will support them today and all the great work they do, not only during the Olympics but throughout the year.

I refer to the memorandum of understanding signed today by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, and his counterpart in England to allow the export of wind energy to England. This is an important day for our industry because the signing of this memorandum of understanding will allow surplus energy to be exported from Ireland.

We are all in favour of renewable and sustainable energy and as the Irish Wind Energy Association stated, the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, has stayed true to his word and has finalised the terms of the memorandum of understanding as promised by both Governments. This demonstrates an unwavering commitment and the faith both parties have in the renewable energy sector to deliver jobs to the economy. When delivered this will create up to 30,000 indigenous jobs and in addition will boost the rate base of local authorities in the area coupled with investment of over ¤18 billion by 2020. That is quite an investment.

I ask the Leader to ask the Minister to come into the House to discuss this issue. The Irish Wind Energy Association has asked for the establishment of a Government and industry implementation group. The Irish Wind Energy Association states it would ideally consist of the relevant experienced parties, public stakeholders and agencies as well as private capital investors and maximise the opportunities available in Ireland. I support that call. We spoke here about Government, agencies, communities groups and everybody working together and it is only when we get the industry, Government and all the parties on the same stage that progress will be made. In that regard Senator Maurice Cummins and myself are helping to organise a conference on renewable energy that will be held here on 21 and 22 June which all the European MEPs will attend. When we have all the details we will circulate them but I ask the Leader to ask the Minister to come into the House to discuss establishing that group as soon as possible because it is important that the same stakeholders are singing from the same hymn sheet. I would add one more stakeholder to that, namely, the energy regulator which I acknowledge is an independent body but we must ensure that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. As the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, said this morning, we do not want to see wind turbines in every corner of Ireland because we have a beautiful landscape but if they are well placed it will be welcome in terms of 40% of our energy being generated by renewable energy sources by 2020.