Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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294. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment whether he agrees that energy policy is currently too widely dispersed across various Government departments; whether he agrees with the creation of a dedicated Minister of State for Energy position, which would centralise responsibility for managing our energy needs and ensure a strategic approach to energy security; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43185/24]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Deputy's assessment that energy policy is an extremely broad and cross-cutting policy area, with impacts across our economy and society. Its impacts range from housing delivery to enterprise competitiveness, from the cost of living for households, to national infrastructure planning.

While energy policy broadly sits under the remit of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, it interacts with enterprise and industrial policy in many ways. In order to address those interactions, and to ensure consistency and alignment across Government policy, I and officials in my Department work extremely closely with the Minister and Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications; and there are structures in place to ensure and facilitate that alignment. These include Cabinet Committees, Senior Officials Groups, the Energy Security Group, the Accelerating Renewable Energy Taskforce, the Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce and the National Energy Demand Strategy implementation group, to name just a few. The energy transition and decarbonisation of our enterprise base has only accentuated the interdependence between enterprise policy and energy policy, and as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment I am determined that we will continue to work productively together across Government to deliver a sustainable and cost competitive energy market and infrastructure.

As the Deputy will be aware, Ministers of State are appointed by the Government, on the nomination of the Taoiseach.