Professor John FitzGerald:

Until now offshore wind has been much more expensive than onshore wind. One of the reasons the people of Ireland and the climate are a winner in what we did on renewable energy compared to anywhere else in Europe is that we have delivered it in a way that has reduced the cost for people and helped clean up our emissions. There are issues which I will not go into here in terms of getting acceptance for onshore wind. However, the cost of offshore wind has come down dramatically. One has to be careful with lobbyists when they are lobbying, but one major international company asked to speak to me and said it was happy to put in a very large amount of offshore wind development in Ireland. I thought the man was going to say the company wanted a subsidy.

Actually, the company wanted interconnection between Ireland and France. If there was such interconnection which enabled Ireland to export its surplus wind energy, it would be done. We are approaching a stage where offshore wind may be deployed in the next decade. Our remit until now has been to decide how we are to clean up our act at a minimal cost to the people of Ireland. Until now, onshore wind has been the answer. To meet our commitments for 2020 we need to see a substantial increase of onshore deployment.

The Chairman raised an interesting issue, and has obviously been briefed on this, as I have. There are problems with offshore power in terms of foreshore licences, etc. Legislation, which has not yet come before the Oireachtas, would help us to clean up our act and make it easy to acquire permits for offshore wind. It would be good if the Department could bring forward that legislation soon. Offshore wind may not yet be profitable, but we should at least be ready for it and make it easy for people.