Ireland holds 90 days of emergency oil stocks, in accordance with International Energy Agency (IEA) rules and EU legislation, to be used in the event of a supply disruption. The National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) is responsible for acquiring and managing Ireland's emergency oil stocks.
The majority of these stocks are held in Ireland, with some stocks held in other EU Member States. Ireland has entered into bilateral agreements with those Member States within which our stocks are stored, thereby ensuring the repatriation to Ireland of this stock in the event of an oil disruption.
In the event of an electricity or gas emergency, ESB Networks and Gas Networks Ireland, the respective network operators, have detailed operational plans in place to deal with any disruption to energy supplies. These emergency plans are regularly reviewed and tested to ensure efficient emergency management in the event of a major disruption to supplies.
In addition to emergency planning, the transition to renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency have key roles in enhancing Ireland's energy security. The Government has a range of policy measures and schemes in place and under development designed to stimulate further progress in the domestic renewable energy sector. Existing schemes include the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) schemes for the electricity sector and the Biofuel Obligation Scheme in transport sector, and my Department is also currently developing a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme and a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme, designed to encourage further investment in the renewable electricity and heat sectors, respectively.
Under Ireland's National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), a particular focus has been assigned to public service buildings with a target of a 33% efficiency target. The most recent SEAI report on energy efficiency achievement by public sector bodies to end 2015 shows almost 21% energy efficiency was achieved – equating to an avoided energy spend in 2015 of €154m. More detail, including the energy use breakdowns are available in the Annual Report 2016 on Public Sector Energy Efficiency Performance – available online. This year I published the first Public Sector Energy Efficiency Strategy which provides the framework and impetus to support the public sector to build on progress to date in pursuit of the 33% target. My Department has been working with other Departments providing leadership and support to them to implement the Strategy. There are a wide range of measures and initiatives supporting the NEEAP that help improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use, thereby reducing import dependency – including pilot initiatives introduced this year. The Schools Pilot Retrofit Project saw 10 schools undertake medium to deep energy retrofit and reducing energy costs by 36% on average.
