A three-year energy initiative could create up to 1,000 new jobs, the Irish Rural Affairs Minister has said.

The Western Development Commission’s Wood Energy Initiative could also generate an additional €15m per annum for rural area.

Funded under the EU INTERREG Northern Periphery Programme, Éamon Ó Cuív said the Western region’s wood resources present major new business and job opportunities.

"Research has already shown that the West could develop an indigenous, sustainable, renewable energy resource delivering 11% of the region’s heat needs by 2020," he said.

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"Importantly, it has the potential to provide €1.7m each year to the West’s farming sector."

According to Mr Ó Cuív, the jobs created would be spread across the entire supply chain and everyone involved would benefit: private forest owners, haulage companies, plumbers, engineering companies and electricians.

"It is great to see a project with such wide-ranging benefits to all sectors of the community.

"I am confident that the Wood Energy Initiative will plant the seeds of an indigenous and sustainable enterprise that can put the Western region at the forefront of a burgeoning and diversified rural economy," added the minister.

(PR/GK)