Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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627. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the cost benefit analysis that has been carried out on behalf of his Department on wind energy, in particular on the wind farms planned for the midlands. [46789/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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In January of this year the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Mr. Ed Davey MP and I signed a Memorandum of Understanding on energy cooperation. That Memorandum sent a strong signal of our shared interest in developing the opportunity to export green electricity from Ireland to Britain and will result in completion of consideration of how Irish renewable energy resources, onshore and offshore, might be developed to the mutual benefit of both countries. A full cost benefit analysis is underway to determine if it is mutually beneficial for Ireland and the United Kingdom to enter an Inter-Governmental Agreement in early 2014 to facilitate trade in renewable energy. A key objective, from an Irish Government perspective, is to realise the potential for investment, jobs and growth.The amount of energy to be procured by the UK and the mechanisms for sharing the resultant economic benefits, including an appropriate return to the Exchequer, are among the matters to be addressed ahead of signing any Inter-Governmental Agreement.