The latest review of Irish energy policies, published last week, found that the state's energy R&D structures were weak and poorly funded.

The IEA's most recent research data indicates that in 2005, Ireland spent 10.9m on energy R&D compared to the 60.8m spent by Denmark, a state with just 900,000 more people.

"Unlike in the areas of biotechnology or information and communications technology R&D, there are few sustained support mechanisms to attract and retain key skills in the energy area, " said the report.

According to Mandil, the Irish government needs to achieve more consistency between its renewable goals and its R&D programmes.

"The energy policy of Ireland is to have a very strong push to renewables with very ambitious goals, which is commendable, but we need to achieve that at acceptable costs, and for that, the costs of some renewables have to be strongly brought down, " he said.

Mandil indicated that Ireland was particularly well-positioned to become a centre of energy R&D because of its location.

"It is an asset for Ireland and you have very good teams of scientists in your universities and research centres.

I think it would provide easy access to the best technologies to reduce the cost of renewables, " he said.

Energy minister Eamon Ryan said the government was determined to improve the country's record on energy R&D.

"We have limited engineering resources and research resources but it's expanding and I think if we can steer Irish companies in the energy area to become leading cutting-edge technology companies, it's the best longterm economic future for us, " he said.

Ryan said this was evident in the new programme for government, which contained a commitment that Science Foundation Ireland would now support renewable energy projects.

"I think I'd also be looking to work with Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to see if their research programmes can be used to help Irish companies developing energy technologies, " said the minister.