Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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991. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to outline his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the Government's energy policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20576/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The overarching objective of the Government's energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers. A new Energy Policy Paper, which will set out Ireland’s energy policy up to 2030, is being developed. To facilitate the development of the new Policy Paper, a Green Paper on Energy Policy in Ireland was published in May 2014 opening a written public consultation process that concluded on 31 July 2014. The Green Paper sets out six policy priority areas in respect of which submissions were sought. Over 1,200 submissions were received in the written consultation process. In addition, there was a targeted stakeholder consultation process involving 11 seminars, six of which focused on the priorities identified in the Green Paper, four regional seminars and a seminar on costs. My Department is carrying out the detailed work needed to develop the new Policy Paper which I aim to publish in October.

A central focus of discussions arising from the consultations and stakeholder engagement process has been the need to place the citizen at the heart of our energy policy and the need to address local community and rural concerns, particularly those that are focused on the building of new infrastructure. This has coincided with initiatives such as those undertaken by Eirgrid in revising its approach to public engagement. For instance, in March of this year Eirgrid published, for public comment, a discussion paper on Ireland's grid development strategy - "Your Grid, Your Views, Your Tomorrow."

The discussion document presents an ideal opportunity for all communities, both rural and urban, to provide their views on any future development of electricity transmission infrastructure.