Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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616. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his Department's expenditure on subsidies for energy production, on research and development into thermal energy and wind, wave and tidal power, and on the peat public service obligation in each of the years 2011 to date, in tabular form. [44189/15]

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.

The Public Service Obligation (PSO) Levy, which is a charge on all electricity customers, is determined by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). Details of the levy in the CER PSO Decisions papers at

This PSO levy has two very important objectives. Firstly, it supports electricity generation which was constructed for security of supply purposes, including peat generation. Secondly, its support for the development of renewable electricity is important for both security of supply and for reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation. The levy is designed to compensate electricity suppliers for the additional costs they incur by purchasing electricity generated by these producers. It has been in place since 2001.

Currently the Renewable Electricity Feed-in-Tariff (REFIT) and the Alternative Energy Requirement (AER) schemes are the means through which renewable electricity is supported in Ireland. These schemes are supported through the PSO levy and in turn support electricity generated from a range of renewable sources, including small scale hydro, biomass combustion, biomass combined heat and power, landfill gas and onshore wind and full details are available on my Department's website,

It is recognised that other technologies may be needed to meet our renewable energy ambitions and diversify our renewable generation portfolio over the period to 2030, and a recent initial public consultation on a new support scheme for renewable electricity sought views to inform a decision on the technologies to be supported. There will be two further opportunities to contribute at key stages in the design of any new scheme. Subject to Government approval and State Aid clearance from the European Commission, the new scheme would become available in 2016.

Energy Research also plays an integral part in Ireland's energy policy. A successful research environment will help develop the tools required for the transition to a sustainable, low carbon environment.

DCENR has key responsibility for setting energy policy and exerts a coordination function in energy research through sitting on a number of national and international groups including, Research Prioritisation Action Group; International Energy Research Centre Board, SET-Plan Steering Group and the INTERREG Programme Committee. There are a number of agencies involved in funding energy research including:

- Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)

- Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI)

-Enterprise Ireland (EI)

- The Irish Research Council (IRC)

- The Higher Education Authority (HEA)

- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

SEAI produces an annual inventory of energy research projects, and the latest Review “Energy in Ireland 1990 - 2014,” is available on its website at highlights that energy RDD&D in Ireland is conducted across a wide range of institutions – Universities, Institutes of Technology, Research Institutions, Research Centres, technology centres, as well as public bodies, state owned companies, and commercial organisations.

In the period 2011 to date some €34 million has been spent on energy research programmes funded under my Department's Vote. This includes support for ocean energy research, development and demonstration including the development of the offshore energy test sites in counties Mayo, Galway and Cork. The programmes also support the Prototype Development Fund operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. This fund supports and grant aids ocean energy companies, helping projects progress up the technology readiness level development path. Almost €7.7m has been grant aided to 43 Ocean projects since 2011.