Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 362: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the amount of the €26 million grant for ocean energy research which has been released; the progress Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Marine Institute have had in developing ocean energy resources; if he is satisfied with the progress made to date and the rate of such progress; if his Department has received complaints from industry or from universities regarding supports for ocean energy research and development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2990/09]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Government is giving high priority to supporting the development of Ireland's ocean energy potential. The multi annual Ocean Energy Package, which I launched last year, encompasses the establishment of the Ocean Energy Development Unit based in Sustainable Energy Ireland; the creation of a state-of-the-art National Ocean Energy facility in University College Cork; the development of a grid-connected wave energy test site off the west coast; the establishment of an Ocean Energy Prototype Fund; and the introduction of a new feed-in-tariff under the REFIT scheme for wave and tidal technologies of €220 per Megawatt Hour. I am pleased to confirm that all components of the package are under way and are being progressed as a priority, with the full involvement of stakeholders, by the Ocean Energy Development Unit.

Expenditure in 2008, at just over €1m, reflects the fact that each of the component measures was in the process of being established and I am advised that the full allocation of €7m in 2009 will be spent. My Department and the Ocean Energy Development Unit are working closely and constructively with all players to progress all dimensions of the Ocean Energy Package.