The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micháel Martin has announced the signing into law of new regulations to amend the remit of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to include sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies.

The Regulations (SI No 134/2008) are in fulfilment of the commitment in the Programme for Government 2007-2012 to amend the remit of SFI to include a third research pillar in these areas.

The Regulations prescribe sustainable energy and energy efficient technologies as strategic areas of scientific endeavour in addition to the areas of ICT and biotechnology specification in section 7(3) of the Industrial Development (Scientific Foundation Ireland) Act 2002.

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Making the announcement, the Minister said: "The provision of sustainable energy and efficient-energy technologies is a vital component of long-term economic development for Ireland. The signing into law of these regulations will allow SFI to build a world-class research capacity in these areas and will provide a solid basis to address Ireland's challenges in the sustainable energy field."

The Regulations follow the agreement between the Mr Martin and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to combine resources and to target a massive research capacity investment through SFI of €90m in these areas, over the period to 2013, details of which were announced at the Energy Summit held in March this year.

Minister Martin concluded: "SFI has been very successful in building Ireland's research capacity in the fields of information and communications technology and biotechnology, and I am sure that this success will be replicated with this new energy remit."

(JM)