Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If it is a good investment for the private sector, which I believe it is, it is a good investment for our money also, rather than investing it in other countries. Last Saturday Germany stopped producing electricity from its nuclear power plants, leaving it highly dependent on fossil fuels, much of which are imported. At the same time, Ireland has great untapped potential off the west coast to meet this demand. We have an indigenous Irish company, Supernode, that wants to develop a transmission network across Europe to export wind energy generated off our Atlantic coast and deliver it directly onto the European grid. Instead of forging ahead, the Government is undermining confidence in the sector by moving to a new plan-led system that requires the drawing up of maps indicating where new offshore wind farms are to be built. This is commendable but we still do not know who will draw up these maps. We have had to wait for a decision from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on this. I do not need to remind the Minister that this is the exact same Department that is yet to deliver on the revised onshore wind energy guidelines that he and I signed off in May 2017, six years ago.

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