32 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the reason the average unit price offered to wind farmers here is the lowest in Europe and is less than the ESB's average cost of generation; and her views on this policy when Ireland is now the most energy import dependent country in Europe. [8568/02]

It is accepted that renewable energies need special support to operate successfully in the internal electricity market. In Ireland the support measure is a power purchase agreement, PPA, between a producer and the ESB obliging the latter to purchase the output from nominated new renewable energy based electricity generating stations at guaranteed prices for up to 15 years. Possession of a PPA enables producers to raise the necessary finance to build projects.