Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 56 and 57 together.

My Department, through Enterprise Ireland, is constantly working to help Irish companies in their export journey to access global markets. In the US market, Enterprise Ireland is pursuing market opportunities through its network of six US offices as well as supporting their development agendas in Ireland. Companies are encouraged to avail of all Agency supports both current and prospective and there is also close Governmental and Agency cooperation with, for example, Select USA, the U.S. government program led by the U.S. Department of Commerce that focuses on facilitating inward FDI job-creating businesses into the United States.

In response to the proposals in the US Inflation Reduction Act 2022, the European Commission has recently updated the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, originally designed to assist with the impacts of the war in Ukraine, into a Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework. This update was released in March 2023 and focuses primarily on energy and climate related measures. Ireland will look to use the flexibilities under this Framework and also in the context of work underway in the EU-US Inflation Reduction Act Taskforce to resolve some of the issues that have arisen in relation to the Inflation Reduction Act. In this context, our Agencies will also work to develop supportive measures for Irish companies in order to exploit business opportunities emerging for Irish companies in the U.S. and to support sustainable and resilient supply chains in that regard.

Last February, the European Commission published its Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age which seeks to enhance the competitiveness of Europe's net-zero industry and accelerate the transition to climate neutrality. It has been developed, in part, in the context of US Inflation Reduction Act. The Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) launched by the European Commission earlier this month forms part of Pillar 1 of the Green Deal. It aims to create a regulatory environment that will provide an effective framework for net-zero technologies and also support the scaling up of the EU's net-zero manufacturing capacities and products, helping to meet Europe's climate neutrality goals, create green jobs and maintain the EU’s competitiveness.

My Department will be launching a public consultation on the NZIA in early April and businesses, enterprise representatives and all interested parties are encouraged to engage with that process and provide their views on the proposed NZIA and put forward their perspectives as to how the NZIA can best be aligned to support enterprise to avail of the opportunities that will arise as we transition to a net-zero economy.