Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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569. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress to date towards reaching targets arrived at by the previous Administration in respect of renewable energy, with a view to meeting this country's international commitments within time and target; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39590/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020 and in order to meet this target, Ireland is committed to meeting 40% of electricity demand from renewable sources, 12% renewables in the heating sector and 10% in transport. Ireland has made good progress with regard to renewable energy deployment.

Provisional figures provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for 2014 show that 8.6% of Ireland's overall energy requirement was met by renewable energy. In addition, SEAI has calculated that 22.7% of electricity, 6.6% of heat and 5.2% of transport were met from renewable sources.While the progress to date is encouraging, significant challenges remain, particularly in the heat and transport sectors.

Regarding renewable electricity, the REFIT schemes underpin the development of a range of technologies, including hydro, biomass combustion, biomass combined heat and power, landfill gas and onshore wind. These schemes will be closed to new applications at the end of this year. In terms of renewable heat, in addition to existing measures such as Part L of the Building Regulations, the 2014 Draft Bioenergy Plan recommended the introduction of a Renewable Heat Incentive for larger heat users to change to heating solutions that produce heat from renewable sources.

On 31 July 2015, my Department launched two separate consultations on new support schemes, one for renewable electricity and one for a proposed Renewable Heat Incentive. Two further consultations on each support scheme are planned. These consultations will be informative regarding the cost effectiveness of technologies that can assist in meeting both our 2020 target and our contribution to the EU's 2030 renewable energy target of 27%. Subject to Government approval and State Aid clearance from the European Commission, the new schemes would become available in late 2016.

As regards renewable transport, Ireland aims to meet its target mainly through the use of sustainable biofuels. Further increases to the obligation rate in the Biofuels Obligation Scheme will be required in the context of achieving our 2020 target. In this regard, a public consultation on the Biofuels Obligation Scheme was completed recently.