Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 347: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the number of applications he has received in response to his advertisement for expressions of interest for excise duty exemption for rapeseed oil and other such products in the context of his plans to reduce excise duty on same; the number of such applications from persons, registered companies and established oil suppliers; the criteria to be used in assessing those applications; the projected time scale for a final decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19435/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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The bio-fuels mineral oil tax, MOT, relief scheme was publicly advertised as a competitive "call for proposals" on 20 April 2005, and the closing date for receipt of applications was 13 May 2005. Under the scheme, mineral oil tax relief may be granted for pilot projects producing up to 6 million litres of pure plant oil, 1 million litres of bio-diesel and 1 million litres of bio-ethanol.

A total of 34 applications were received under the call for proposals by the closing date. Applications were received from four individuals, 27 registered companies and several established oil suppliers operating on their own or as part of a consortium. My Department and Sustainable Energy Ireland are currently evaluating the proposals. Details of the evaluation criteria were outlined in the application form, and supporting documentation provided for prospective applicants. Those are: the technical excellence and quality of the proposal; the appropriate level of project management in methodology and utilisation of resources and appropriate skills of the project team; the extent to which the proposal achieves the least-cost path for carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduction; the approach to the dissemination of results; the market impact potential of the proposal, including its capacity to address market barriers and its capacity for replication; the approach to addressing complete supply-chain issues, including feedstock and market introduction of bio-fuels; the approach to the achievement, monitoring and maintenance of quality standards; the approach to the evaluation of market impact with respect to performance of bio-fuels; and the contribution of international competence in the field.

It is anticipated that my Department will be in a position to make recommendations to the Department of Finance by the end of June. The Department of Finance will then consider those recommendations and revert to my Department with a decision, at which stage my Department will be in a position to revert to all applicants.