Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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122. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on the early take-up of the green transition fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62104/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Green Transition Fund, which I launched in June 2022, is designed specifically to address a core measure in the enterprise chapter of the Climate Action Plan 2021, which was to reduce manufacturing combustion emissions.

This Fund provides manufacturing businesses the foundation they need to begin their transition to low carbon production processes and help them to decarbonise their operations through investment in carbon abating capital equipment and technologies.

The Green Transition Fund comprises two separate funding streams:

1. The Climate Planning Fund for Business, which will give businesses funding to develop a plan to identify how best to remove reliance on fossil fuels in their business. A €1,800 grant to develop a plan and up to €50,000 matched funding to go towards specific capacity building within an enterprise are among the grants available.

2. The Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund, which will give manufacturing businesses funding to invest in carbon neutral heating processes, smart metering and energy monitoring, and research and development. Up to €1 million is available for businesses to upgrade their processes through this stream.

As of 8 December 2022, there have been 66 approvals valued at €1,024,796.

The level of demand is anticipated to be grow significantly in 2023 as awareness of the offerings that make up the Green Transition Fund continues to grow, and businesses see the energy efficiency improvements that can be made through decarbonisation.

The fund is administered by Enterprise Ireland. Over the period of its’ current strategy, 2022-2024, Enterprise Ireland has a target of 425 climate interventions with companies. For 2022, the target is 150 interventions. These are across a range of supports for companies including consultancy, training, R&D, capital investment to enable companies to improve their sustainability and decarbonise.

Enterprise Ireland advise me that there have been 126 approvals this year valued at €1.4m; these are across our Climate Action Voucher, Green Start, Green Plus, Strategic Consultancy, and RD&I. There have also been three Environmental Aid approvals valued at €12.8m in total.

My department aims to facilitate opportunities for decarbonisation across our enterprise base and we are in the process of integrating climate action into all aspects of the Department and its agencies’ activities. This will foster strong, resilient businesses, that are successful and sustainable, while meeting our sector’s climate action ambitions.