Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Ó Gallachóir for his detailed presentation. I will begin with some of the questions that came to me as he was working through his presentation.

What are the obstacles to the development of a successful offshore renewable industry in Ireland, according to the MaREI Centre, and what can be done to overcome these obstacles? We will all have to work together to make that happen and I accept Professor Ó Gallachóir's point at the outset that the greatest result we could get from this committee is to move towards political consensus and take some of the politics out of this issue because we all have skin in the game as to how this will play out in the coming years for the country.

Are there best practice examples of offshore energy regulatory systems in other countries that Ireland can seek to emulate aspects of? With regard to offshore energy, wind and tidal energy offshore seem to be attractive issues to raise in public meetings in comparison with onshore wind developments that have not had community acceptance. How does the Professor Ó Gallachóir's find that they compare? We are told that costs are coming down but what are the challenges to the further development of that? I accept the his point that at times there is probably too much focus on this element.

On tidal energy, countries such as Portugal are probably ahead of us in terms of best practice but we have a lot of coastline so does the MaREI Centre believe there is potential in this regard?

Does the MaREI Centre have an approximate price or trajectory for a carbon tax out to 2030 to drive the necessary behavioural change for Ireland to work us towards our 2030 targets?

Does the organisation have a view on the potential approaches to the tax such fee and dividend or hypothecation models?

Teagasc are up next and I acknowledge that Professor Ó Gallachóir did not touch on agriculture much as it is not necessarily its main area of focus. Teagasc had a report on emissions abatement in agriculture that the MaREI Centre is probably familiar with. How far could these measures bring us towards the 2030 targets and how can the sector move towards this? It would be interesting to get the MaREI Centre's views on that before Teagasc come in.

On carbon capture and storage, how sound is the technology around that? Is it well proven at this stage and is it a realistic option for Ireland as part of its low-carbon energy solution?

There was a throwaway comment in the middle about sorting out freight and Professor Ó Gallachóir made it sound easy. How does he envisage that we sort out freight? Did his comment mean that it should just be banned?