Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 354: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the fact that in July 2009, the east west electricity interconnector was allocated approximately €110 million from Part A of a programme (details supplied) and that Ireland received none of the €1.6 billion funding decided for Parts B and C of that programme; if Ireland applied for any of these funds despite possessing strong wind resources and being over target on emissions; if so, the reason funding was not granted from this programme; if Ireland will apply for funding form the EU's €4 billion new entrants' reserve fund, which is also for carbon capture and storage as well as renewable energy projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5552/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Eligibility for the Funding Round announced in July 2009 required projects of a very substantial scale that were at an advanced stage. In that context, the only suitable project available to the Irish Government was the East-West Interconnector to which a very substantial allocation of €110m was made.

As the Deputy will be aware, the New Entrant Reserve (NER) 300 is a budget of 300 million EU emission unit allowances (EUAs) allocated in December 2008 to finance innovative demonstration projects in the fields of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and Renewable Energy. The meeting, which was held just recently to decide on the Draft Commission Decision, includes eligibility criteria that will be used to select projects under the NER 300 programme. It is therefore premature to move to identify suitable projects at this stage under this programme.