Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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479. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when the expected renewable heat incentive will be launched in 2016, given the Government's commitment regarding this; what will its terms and conditions be; if smaller businesses will have access to supports for the installation of renewable heat technologies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2697/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The development of a renewable heat incentive (RHI) is an important action stemming from the draft BioEnergy Strategy, and reaffirmed in the Energy White Paper 'Ireland's Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Future 2015-2030' published in December last. The RHI will be a national renewable support scheme in the heating sector and will be open to participants across the country subject to a range of criteria that will be published when the scheme becomes available.

The first of three public consultations on the design of the new renewable heat incentive was published in July 2015. The initial phase of this consultation process, which closed on 18 September 2015, was designed to review the technology options that may be supported by any new scheme. Work is now on-going in the Department on the costings of the RHI and the exact terms and conditions of the scheme.

The second phase in the consultation process will explore the potential design options for the structure of the support scheme, while the final phase will seek feedback on the preferred design option and implementation. These consultation phases will give interested parties further opportunities to participate in the development of the support scheme. Further details on these phases will be advertised on the Department’s website.

It is expected that the terms and conditions of the new scheme will be announced towards the end of this year subject to Government approval and State aid clearance from the European Commission.