Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources has launched the ISLES II Study in front of European Commissioners, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and Guenther Oettinger, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary, Phyllis Yoshida and over 300 other delegates at a EU Presidency Conference in Dublin.

The event was the SET-Plan Conference, which looked at programmes and policies designed to facilitate the enhanced application of technological advances to help meet national and EU energy and climate change targets.

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Minister Rabbitte said: "Getting innovative energy technologies into everyday use is not just a matter of energy technology research and development. Attracting financial instruments which fit the needs, and ensuring the availability of sufficient numbers of appropriately skilled people, are big challenges for Europe. I welcome the inclusion in this conference of a dedicated session to address these important issues."

The Isles II project will follow on from the successful feasibility study into how to optimally interconnect the Scottish, Northern Ireland and Irish grid systems in a way which would facilitate the development of offshore marine renewable energy projects.

The SET-Plan has been, and is, a bold and vital initiative to write energy technology strategy for Europe for the years to come and Ireland has been an enthusiastic supporter of the set plan since its inception.

(CD)