Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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760. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide a detailed breakdown and report of the areas of expenditure of the energy efficiency fund since 2014; the audit measures in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12007/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Energy Efficiency Fund (EFF) is a commercial fund, established in 2014, to provide specialist financial expertise and appropriately structured funding for large scale energy efficiency projects in the private and public sectors. A sum of €35m in seed capital was provided by the Government with a view to the establishment of a leveraged fund of €70m. That target has been exceeded with commitments by private sector institutional investors bringing the fund to its present total of €78.8m. The Government remains a minority shareholder.

As a commercial, regulated, entity the fund is subject to full regulatory scrutiny by the Central Bank. The fund is authorised and regulated by the Central Bank as a qualifying investor fund (“QIF”) in accordance with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (Directive 2011/61/EU) (“AIFMD”). The governance framework for the Government's capital commitment was established by the European Union (Energy Efficiency Obligation) Regulations, Statutory Instrument (SI) 131 of 2014. 

The EEF is managed by Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) following a tender process carried out in 2013. SDCL also has investments in energy efficiency projects in the UK, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore. To date €3,190,800 of the Government capital commitment has been drawn down. Three projects have been completed to date in the retail, hospitality and social housing sectors. A pipeline of projects is being progressed across sectors such as financial services, communications and healthcare.

The last full audit of Ireland Energy Efficiency Investments plc conducted by KPMG was for the year ended 31 March 2016. In this audit, KPMG gave an unqualified audit opinion and noted that the financial statements had been properly prepared in keeping with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and complied with the requirements of the Companies Act 2014. Should the Deputy wish I am happy to furnish him with a copy of these accounts.