Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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126. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if there has been any move to renew talks on the export of renewable energy from Ireland to Britain. [23139/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Intensive discussions took place in 2013 and 2014 between my Department and the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK to establish if it would be possible to export renewable energy in order to allow the UK meet its 2020 renewable energy target. Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Energy Cooperation with the UK Government in January 2013, a joint programme of work was undertaken to consider how Irish renewable energy resources, onshore and offshore, might be developed to the mutual benefit of both Ireland and the UK. In April 2014 it was announced by my predecessor that it was not possible to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) as originally envisaged. Economic analysis conducted on the Irish side clearly indicated that with the appropriate policy and regulatory framework, renewable energy trading could deliver benefits to both Ireland and the UK. However, given the economic, policy and regulatory complexities involved and some key decisions yet to be taken by the UK, delivery of renewable energy trading by 2020 is not now a realistic proposition.