Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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13. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding the amount of grant aid paid by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to Irish wave energy companies by company; the type of wave energy converter proposed in each case; and the technical readiness level of each company before and after the grant aid. [40170/14]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Wave and tidal energy technology is still at the Research, Development and Demonstration stage globally. Ireland has a rich ocean resource and has significant potential in this area. Consequently, in order to take forward the Government's ocean energy strategy, an Ocean Energy Development Unit was established in the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in 2009.The Ocean Energy Development Unit has been facilitating the development of the sector through administration of a Prototype Development Fund of grants for industry. SEAI has to date invested or provided grant aid totalling just over €2.6m to ocean wave energy companies from the Fund. Grant commitments have been made to 15 separate companies ranging from just over €13,000 to over €830,000 and I propose to circulate with the Official Record a table detailing the commitments made from the Fund.

Table: Grant Commitments from Prototype Development Fund