Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 378: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources his views on whether there is a conflict between the statement made in the Green Paper on energy that while renewable energy sources will grow rapidly within the EU they fall short of the set targets and his Department's setting of targets much higher than those set by the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31973/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Directive 2001/77/EC on the promotion of Renewable Energy Sourced Electricity (RES-E) in the internal electricity market aims to increase the overall consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources within the European Union (EU) from 14% to 22% by 2010. Analysts have pointed to the rapid development of renewable energy sources to date within the EU market but continue to question whether that rapid progress will be sufficient to deliver the 22% target in the planned timeframe.

The target addressed to Ireland in the RES-E Directive is to increase the consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources to 13.2% by 2010. I recently announced plans to exceed this target and to achieve 15% by 2010. I am confident that the progress made to date and ongoing progress under the REFIT programme, which I introduced this year, will deliver this higher national target on time.

The Energy Policy Green Paper proposes an ambitious national target of 30% by 2020. Our ambitions for renewable energy fully accord with the priority being given at EU level to accelerated growth of renewable energy in the fuel mix over coming years.