Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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32. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to increase the production of renewable energies to reach the European Union target of 16% of energy being produced through renewable sources; his views that the 16% is sufficient; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21623/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The White Paper on Energy Policy sets out a vision of a low carbon energy system in Ireland, where greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector will be reduced by between 80% and 95%, compared to 1990 levels, by 2050, and where alternative and renewable energy will play a dominant role in Ireland’s future energy mix. In addition, the Programme for Government sets out a range of priority climate actions and interventions, a number of which have a direct bearing on the energy efficiency and the renewable energy sector. In combination, these will help to increase and diversify Ireland’s renewable energy mix across the electricity, heating and transport sectors. The clear focus of my Department is on implementing the range of actions set out in the White Paper and Programme for Government that are aimed at meeting our energy and climate change targets. The EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. The Government has a range of policy measures and schemes to incentivise the use of renewable energy and although good progress towards the target has been made to date, meeting the 16% target remains challenging. The Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff (REFIT) schemes support the development of a range of renewable electricity technologies including hydro, biomass combustion, biomass combined heat and power, landfill gas and onshore wind.

Work is now on-going in my Department on the development of a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) to encourage the development of Ireland’s abundant and indigenous renewable energy resources. This scheme will examine the viability of supporting a range of new renewable energy technologies in Ireland - including solar, bioenergy and ocean energy – and will help to further reduce emissions in the electricity sector.

In the heating sector, my Department is working on the introduction of a new Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to support the deployment of renewable energy for commercial and industrial users of heat in the non-ETS sector. The primary aim of the RHI is to build on the progress already made in the renewable heat sector and help to reach Ireland's 12% renewable heat target by 2020. In 2015 it is estimated that 6.8% of heat was derived from renewable sources. The new RHI scheme is expected to become available in 2017.

In the transport sector Ireland aims to meet our 10% renewable target mainly through the increased use of sustainable biofuels, with electric vehicles also making a small contribution out to 2020. In 2015, provisional figures indicate 5.7% of our energy needs in the transport sector were met from renewable sources. Meeting our RES-T target will be largely met through the Biofuels Obligation Scheme, in place since 2010, which will increase the percentage of biofuels in transport fuels between now and 2020.

The Government  also recognises that improved energy efficiency will play a vital role in supporting the future transition to a low carbon energy future.