Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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305. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will indicate Ireland's target figure for electricity exports in megawatts, which is central to the UK-Ireland intergovernmental agreement under development (details supplied). [52566/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The figures referred to by the Deputy which relate to the various Gate processes and those in the queue awaiting connection agreements, are under the Commission for Energy Regulation's Group Processing Approach for the treatment of generation facilities seeking access to the Irish electricity grid. These projects are aiming to supply the domestic Irish market and contribute to achieving 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020, as part of our overall legally binding target of 16% of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

As regards projects of a significant scale specifically for renewable export, it is important to note that any wind energy export project must await the conclusion of an Inter-Governmental Agreement, the development of the Renewable Energy Export Policy and Development Framework and the obtaining of the necessary consents from An Bord Pleanála for the project. The Memorandum of Understanding on energy co-operation, signed in January of this year by the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Mr. Edward Davey MP, and I, 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. An agreed programme of work to this end, including a full technical and economic analysis, is underway with the ambition to settle on an Inter-Governmental Agreement in 2014. 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 United Kingdom 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.