Professor Barry McMullin:

The Deputy raises an important point. I am very sympathetic towards communities everywhere which are disrupted in this way. However, one simply cannot underestimate the scale of new activity that will be necessary to reconstruct an energy system that does not depend on fossil fuels. That is where the opportunities arise. In the case of Ireland, the biggest single opportunity is sourcing offshore wind energy, but also making that wind energy available on a firm dispatchable basis, which means energy storage systems. Long-term energy storage systems will critically revolve around the use of hydrogen, hydrogen storage, supply chains and processing around that. Much work has been done on that area, on which Ireland can lead the world. There is a great opportunity for communities all over Ireland to avail of it.