Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree there is investment but the research on wind and tidal energy is very much long term and we will not know the outcome for 20 or 30 years. It is a long shot but worth doing. The State needs to invest in licensing, planning and strategic environmental assessment, and seabed and other surveys for offshore wind energy, which is not a 20-year bed or a five-year bed. This is happening on a large scale in other European countries, America, Japan, Chile and elsewhere. Ireland is being left behind and forgotten about. We could raise significant funding in Brussels immediately if we had in place a licensing process for west of Ireland offshore wind but nothing is happening. The Minister of State, is from Galway. Investment in this area would switch on County Galway and counties Mayo and Donegal but there is nothing in this regard in the budget.