Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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16. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Ireland's position in respect of ranking in a list of energy efficient countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4294/14]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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There is currently no international ranking of countries in terms of an energy efficiency league table published by either the European Union or International Energy Agency.

The National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) is the overarching policy framework for energy efficiency in Ireland and contains Ireland’s commitment to a 20% energy savings target across the economy by 2020 in pursuit of our EU obligations. This is equivalent to 31,925 Gigawatt hours (GWh) or a reduction in annual CO2 emissions of around 7.7 Mega tonnes (Mt). Recognising that Government must lead by example, we are committed to achieving a 33% reduction in public sector energy use by 2020. At end 2012 we have already achieved or banked 11,419 GWh which represents 36% of our national target. Nevertheless, the bulk of our target remains to be delivered over the 7 years to 2020.

Earlier this month the European Commission published a progress report on energy efficiency referring to historical data based mainly on what Member States reported in their second NEEAPs. It does acknowledge that Ireland’s existing Action Plan presents a clear and cohesive medium term strategy to improve energy efficiency and in particular contains a strong commitment to improve efficiency in the public sector. However, the Commission’s analysis points out that given the different approaches used by member states to calculate savings under the framework of the 2006 Energy Services Directive, it is difficult to quantify overall savings achieved to this point. It therefore concludes that the savings reported by different Member States are not comparable.

Under the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive, all Member States are required to submit a revised Energy Efficiency Action Plan by 30 April 2014 and every three years thereafter. The drafting of our next Action Plan is underway and our intention is to submit it to the Commission by the required deadline. Moreover, by 30 June 2014 the Commission will assess progress achieved and whether the Union is likely to achieve its 2020 energy consumption targets.