Ms Julie O'Neill:

Offshore wind does have an appeal and interesting potential. There are cost effectiveness issues versus onshore wind, but I believe it has potential in the export space. Deputy Moynihan raised the UK situation and some time ago there seemed to be potential for export into the UK grid from offshore wind in the Irish Sea. That matter has gone to the back burner for now, but I suspect it will come back into play, particularly after 2020. I do not believe the issue will go away. I see offshore wind as having significant potential in an interconnected Europe.

We talk a lot about electricity prices and the need to keep them down. In the Irish context, there are a number of drivers of our electricity prices, not least of which is the fact that we are an island nation with a very dispersed population for such a small island and are very dependent on expensive imports. We then have to put infrastructure in place around that. As we move forward, we will look at other opportunities to inject into the energy mix from a variety of sources. Offshore wind may well be one of those.