Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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80. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason his Department is offering MSc scholarship opportunities in petroleum-related courses in view of the fact his Department's statement of strategy declares one of its objectives is to pursue and achieve transition to a low carbon, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable economy, underpinned by a secure and competitive energy supply, in the period to 2050 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5792/17]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Energy White Paper “” sets out a vision and framework to guide Irish energy policy and the actions that Government intends to take in the energy sector from now up to 2030, aimed at transforming Ireland's fossil-fuel based energy sector into a clean, low carbon system by 2050. This ambitious vision for Ireland’s energy system envisages a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from that sector by 80-95% relative to 1990 levels by 2050. The White Paper identifies the long-term strategic importance of diversifying Ireland's energy generation portfolio and largely decarbonising the energy sector by 2050.

Ireland’s transition to a low carbon energy future will involve progressively moving to lower emissions fuels (e.g. moving initially from peat and coal to natural gas), and ultimately towards an even greater reliance on renewable energy. In that regard, the Government has introduced a range of policy measures and schemes to incentivise the use of renewable energy and deliver energy efficiency.

The White Paperrecognises that oil and natural gas will remain significant elements of Ireland’s energy supply in the transition period and, taking this into account, the development of Ireland’s indigenous oil and gas resources has the potential to deliver significant and sustained benefits to Irish society and the economy, particularly in terms of enhanced security of supply, import substitution, fiscal return, national and local economic development and technology learning.

In that context, the Department is continuing a scheme it has administered for many years granting a limited number of scholarships - three scholarships were awarded in 2016 - to students undertaking taught Master of Science (MSc) Degrees in topics of relevance to the development of Ireland’s indigenous oil and gas resources. The scholarship scheme’s objective is to encourage a potential pool of qualified Irish graduates with specialist qualifications of direct applicability to the sector in Ireland. The 2017 scholarship scheme seeks applications from students who have been accepted on to a relevant MSc degree course in petroleum geoscience, petroleum engineering or environmental science starting in late 2017.