Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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97. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if it is proposed to include in an intergovernmental agreement between the Government and the British Government on the export of electricity a commitment that all electricity generated above that required to meet this State's 2020 target will be exported to assist the UK in achieving its target. [53206/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Ireland has the capability to achieve its national targets for renewable electricity from onshore renewable generation alone, with capacity to spare. This means that, under the co-operation mechanisms outlined in Directive 2009/28/EC, there is potential for projects of scale both onshore and offshore that are aimed at export markets. It is in this context that the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Mr. Edward 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. The Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK has published a response to its Call for Evidence on Renewable Energy Trading earlier this year. In that document it concluded that it was not possible to make plans for statistical transfer at this stage and noted that it was therefore exploring physical trading. The Intergovernmental Agreement is therefore dealing specifically with projects built under the co-operation mechanisms outlined in the Renewable Energy Directive, and in the first instance joint projects. The amount of energy to be procured by the United Kingdom is among the matters to be addressed ahead of signing any Inter-Governmental Agreement. An agreed programme of work is already underway so as to prepare for the Inter-Governmental Agreement. This work programme includes economic analysis, addressing policy and regulatory questions and dealing with grid issues. There are very complex engineering and market issues to be teased out but the ambition is to settle on an Inter-Governmental Agreement in early 2014. In advance of this it would be premature to state an export quantity.