Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know many people want to get in on this. It is one of those debates where we are all in agreement on the need for greater ambition in our wind energy and renewables. We all see, particularly with the Ukraine war, how important renewable energy is, in addition to the idea of energy independence. Ireland has significant potential to realise full energy independence. It is welcome that everybody who has contributed to the debate has not used it as an excuse, which we have seen in the past, to lobby for LNG terminals or other nonsensical arguments. We have the potential for 100% renewables in this country. To achieve that energy independence and energy security should be the focus of everybody, regardless of whether they are in the Government or the Opposition.

In our 2018 Powering Ireland 2030 policy document, Sinn Féin set out a very ambitious and pragmatic plan that would have seen the proportion of 80% of electricity demand being provided by renewables by 2030. We have always recognised the potential we have. We welcome the ambition of this Government to achieve 80% of electricity from renewables by 2030. However, that target was only accepted by the Government in 2021. I do not lay any of the blame for that at the Minister's feet. We have lost a decade in this country to deliver on our energy targets due to lack of ambition. That delayed ambition has already put meeting this current target in jeopardy.

We also have to acknowledge that we have the most expensive renewable energy in the European Union. There are a number of reasons for that. It is not to do with the Ukraine war, although that is certainly playing into costs and supply chains. We have always consistently had the most expensive renewable energy. For a long time, Sinn Féin has called for a high-level stakeholder, cross-departmental forum to identify where the points are, why we are outliers in renewable energy costs compared with our European counterparts, and how we can address them through policy gaps. This does not all fall into the energy portfolio. People have talked about planning, ports and a number of different issues regarding why we have higher costs. That needs to be addressed because we all want renewable energy and to be able to deliver lower-cost energy bills for households in order that they can see the direct benefit from investing in such energy.

One example of the cost of the delay relates to offshore wind farms. A matter I have a lot of concern about, and on which I would like to hear reassurances from the Minister, is that the number of offshore wind turbines is outpacing the supply of the specialised vessels capable of deploying these wind turbines.In 2020, there were only 20 such boats. Demand for these ships is outpacing supply, meaning the ships are booked up years in advance. I ask for reassurances that we have booked that capacity and those vessels so that if a company has all the other components in place to deliver an offshore wind farm later this decade, accessing those specialised vessels is not going to delay or impede that wind farm being delivered.

I also have concerns about the ports and what the Government is doing there. We have lost out on EU funding to build up our port capacity. My understanding is that Belfast Port is the only port currently capable of bringing in these huge wind turbines. What is the Government doing to try to rectify that? Is it trying to source alternative income? It is going to use State revenues or will it reapply to the EU for that essential funding?

The other issue with the funding of renewables overall is the PSO levy. We believe that needs to be reformed. It is not fair at the moment. While everybody is thankful that the PSO levy on renewables has come down and they are paying back into the system so people are seeing a benefit in their bill, that might change. It can change. We have seen a complete flip in the cost of renewables so why is it a flat rate? It is regressive and households are paying a disproportionate amount because of the way it is designed around peak demand and not steady demand. We are subsidising those large energy users, including data centres. We are also subsiding data centres with the large energy use subsidy that has gone on for a decade, which the CRU is thankfully unwinding. It has to be a fair system. If we are funding renewables it should not be households that are doing the heavy lifting on that.

Lots of people have talked about planning. I do not need to over-egg it since other people have pointed to it but we have an issue with planning here and the answer is not to make it harder for people to object to wind farms. We need to be resourcing the planning system. I am reassured by what the Minister said about upskilling. We need those people. We need them particularly in the marine environment so we can balance the realisation of the potential of wind energy with our marine biodiversity and those habitats that are of crucial importance. Sinn Féin's alternative budget provided extra resources, not only for the planning system but also for those environmental NGOs that have to make submissions on planning applications, so they have the skills and resources to do that. To prevent cases going through judicial review, we need to fix the planning process.

When will the wind energy development guidelines be published? They are long overdue. This is a concern for local communities and we need to see those guidelines. I have said this to the Minister a number of times when he has been in the Chamber. Yes, our potential has to be realised but also it is about putting wind turbines in the right place. We have seen what happened when that was not done in Derrybrien and the huge impact that can have on communities. That is equally the case with the mid-Shannon wilderness park. The community there was promised a wilderness park and now they are being told it is going to be a wind farm. I do not think that is fair in terms of the just transition but it also does not make sense to put wind turbines on pumped peatlands. They could be used for solar and that wilderness park and the community could then have the resources they were promised as part of the just transition.