Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 February 2023
178. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of funding allocated to energy monitoring and tracking systems in 2021, 2022, and to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5377/23]
View answerI propose to take PQs 5375/23, 5376/23 and 5377/23 together.
In Budget 2022, Government announced that €55 million would be made available under the National Recovery & Resilience Plan to assist enterprises through the Green Transition Fund. This budget is split into two streams, the Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund (EERIF) (€30m) and the Climate Planning Fund for Business (€25m) which will both run from 2022 until the end of 2025.
The EERIF is available to manufacturing companies of all sizes and provides capital grant aid to incentivise adoption of CO2 abatement technologies in their processes. It facilitates accelerated action on potential cost savings and abatement by funding the installation of Energy Metering and Monitoring Control Systems and carbon-neutral, low to medium temperature process heating such as electric heat-pumps or biogas processes.
The objectives of the fund are to:
- Reduce the payback period of key carbon reducing technologies at plant level by incentivising companies to invest in, and adopt these technologies; and,
- Increase the resilience of companies to climate change and assist them to accelerate progress towards a net carbon zero pathway
The EERIF is made up of three separate schemes, outlined below:
Capital investment for decarbonisation processes [Scheme 1]: To incentivise companies to decarbonise through investment in CO2 reducing technologies in manufacturing combustion processes by reducing the payback period of key carbon reducing technologies at plant level.
Capital investment in Energy Metering [Scheme 2]: To incentivise companies to put in place monitoring and targeting systems to begin accounting for the carbon footprint of their activities
Research, Development and Innovation [Scheme 3]:
R&D Feasibility: Assistance to carry out explorative work assessing the resource requirements and the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats of a potential R&D project in the area of sustainability
Innovation Vouchers: Providing assistance to SMEs to explore a business opportunity or problem with a registered knowledge provider in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation
Exploring Innovation: The Exploring Innovation grant will promote better planning of R&D, innovation or international collaboration projects in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation through prototype development, analysis of commercial feasibility, investigating solutions from 3rd level and encouraging companies to think strategically around disruptive technologies.
Research & Development: Assisting the development of new or substantially improved products, services or processes, in the areas of sustainability and decarbonisation, which will have a competitive advantage in a company’s target market and provide enhanced customer experience.
As articulated in the Government’s recent White Paper on Enterprise, transforming the sustainability of Irish enterprise is key to competitiveness in the future. Helping enterprise to engage with, adapt to, and realise opportunities from the low carbon transition, will be critical to the long-term, sustainable growth of Irish enterprise.
Support offered to companies under the EERIF in 2021,2022 & 2023.
|
2023 |
|||
|
Client Offer |
No. Projects Approved |
Approval € |
Payment € |
|
2. Capital investment for Energy Monitoring & Tracking (EM&T) Systems |
<5 |
12,304.00 |
0 |
|
2022 |
|||
|
Client Offer |
No. Projects Approved |
Approval € |
Payment € |
|
1. Capital investment for decarbonisation processes |
<5 |
309,000.00 |
0 |
|
2. Capital investment for Energy Monitoring & Tracking (EM & T) Systems |
<5 |
84,851.00 |
0 |
|
3.i. R&D Feasibility |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
3.ii. Innovation Vouchers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
3.iii. Exploring Innovation |
<5 |
325,968.00 |
0 |
|
3.iv. R&D Fund |
<5 |
128,781.00 |
0 |
|
2021 |
|||
|
The Enterprise Emission Reduction Investment Fund was launched in 2022 and therefore no funding was approved or paid in 2021. |
