Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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148. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has discussed with Enterprise Ireland the way to stimulate the establishment of indigenous businesses in the renewable energy supply chain through a national renewable energy business accelerator programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62962/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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My Department, together with Enterprise Ireland, are actively engaged in building capacity in the indigenous sector to access supply chain opportunities in renewable energy and sustainability.

The new Smart Regional Enterprise Innovation Scheme (SREIS fund), which is part-funded through the ERDF, will build on existing initiatives and support new collaborative and innovative regional projects from 2023. This activity will align with the recommendations of the nine Regional Enterprise Plans and Ireland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy around digitalisation and green transformation goals for industry.

The Offshore Wind industry has a significant regional employment potential. Enterprise Ireland has been working with Irish SMEs to develop their capability in the offshore wind sector. It has developed an Irish offshore wind supply chain cluster (The Gael Offshore Network) which consists of over 65 Irish companies. These companies provide a range of products, services, and skillsets appropriate to the offshore wind industry including environmental and geotechnical Consultancy, seabed surveys, and operations and maintenance services.

Enterprise Ireland is primarily focused on helping Irish SMEs to bring this capability to export markets. For example, by facilitating Irish SMEs entry into the UK offshore wind industry, EI is helping these companies to build the appropriate capability and offerings to industry that not only operates in the UK and globally, but which are also going to be major stakeholders in the Irish offshore wind sector.

The Interim Report of Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce which was launched on 10 December last has also assessed the potential for renewable energy projects and how the Region can play a leading role in the switch to renewable energy and more climate friendly ways of living and doing business. The taskforce proposes that the Estuary would also become a hub for sustainable transport technologies and a western “Digital Gateway” to Europe. It also proposes significant investment in the ports at Foynes and Moneypoint, a new auction for floating wind generation in 2024 and identifying industrial sites for clean energy industries like hydrogen.