David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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23. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he expects to publish the offshore renewable energy development plan; his plans to develop offshore renewable energy potential, in particular ocean energy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4306/14]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I will shortly be publishing an Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP). Informed by the findings of a Strategic Environmental Assessment, the OREDP will identify how best to coordinate action across the environmental, energy and economic development policy areas in order to realise Ireland's abundant offshore renewable energy potential, using both offshore wind, and emerging ocean, renewable energy technologies.

It is clear from the work that my Department has been undertaking to develop the OREDP, that cross cutting action is required to maintain support for the ocean sector if it is to successfully reach commerical viability. Full coordination across government departments and agencies on areas such as environmental monitoring, research and development, consenting procedures, infrastructure requirements and enterprise development, will all be critical to realising the potential of this sector as a source of sustainable employment and economic growth, especially in those coastal communities where job creation is particularly challenging.

While the OREDP will contain new measures, which I will announce shortly, it will also add real value by providing a structure through which existing measures can be fully coordinated. My Department already supports ocean energy through the funding for the Ocean Energy Development Unit in the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), which administers the Prototype Development Fund, designed to support the development and deployment of ocean energy devices. The SEAI has also been allocated €5 million for the development of the Atlantic Mayo Energy Test Site, which will be a site of international importance for open sea testing of ocean energy devices. In conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, my Department also provides funding for the Integrated Maritime Energy Research Centre (IMERC) in Cork. A partnership between UCC, Cork Institute of Technology and the Irish Naval Service, IMERC is developing an integrated maritime research and enterprise centre at its campus at Ringaskiddy in Cork, which includes internationally recognised expertise in ocean energy. In total, my Department has allocated a total of €26.3 million in funding for ocean energy for the period 2013 to 2016.