Vol. 571 No. 4
163 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the matters discussed at his meeting with the Northern Ireland Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Ian Pearson MP, regarding progress towards an all-Ireland energy market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22049/03]
I met the Northern Ireland Office Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Ian Pearson, MP, on 17 July 2003 in Dublin to review progress towards an all-island energy market. This meeting followed recent renewed activity between both our Departments at official level. We took the opportunity to identify a number of areas on which we agreed to focus our joint efforts to advance co-operation at an operational level in the short-term. The areas identified for further progress are cross-Border trading in electricity, electricity system interaction and integration, all-island gas network, co-ordination of regulatory activities, climate change, emissions and renewable energy and energy efficiency policies.
We also decided to establish a joint steering group comprising senior officials from both our two Departments and the two regulatory authorities. This group has already begun overseeing work on a number of specific studies on the key issues. This work is being carried out by a number of subsidiary working groups tasked with examining detailed aspects of the priority areas identified. The steering group will report back to Ministers at the next ministerial bilateral meeting, scheduled to take place in early December.
