413 Mr. Hyland asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the current position on the development of Ireland's renewable energy programme; the steps, if any, he will take to ensure that his Department submits proposals for Altener II which is geared towards the implementation of the research findings of Altner 1 in which Ireland participated; and if he will make a statement on the findings of his Department's participation in the programme and in particular the more positive aspects on which a new proposal can be formulated. [8318/97]

As the Deputy is aware, considerable progress has been made in the renewable energy area under my stewardship.

In March 1995, I announced the results of the first Alternative Energy Requirement scheme (AER 1). This competition was designed by my Department, in conjunction with ESB, to secure an additional 75MW of electricity generation capacity from alternative energy sources. In total the AERI initiative yielded contract offers for 111MW of capacity broken down as follows: