Mr. Brendan Tuohy:

If we go 100 km off the coast, we are talking about of the order of 72 GW of potential. We and the Government have committed to a number of approximately 3.2 GW minimum over the next number of years as we look to the next ten years. My feeling is that it will be more. We are not going to meet the targets for 2030 unless we embrace offshore energy. The power is still needed most around the east coast and Dublin and the challenges there are not as bad as they are off the west coast. I am talking specifically about depth and the geology of the area. The Chairman knows I also chair MaREI, and we have been working on the marine renewable side for a number of years. The offshore energy production on the west coast will be much more challenging. Tidal and wave is in the second phase and offshore floating wind energy production is likely to start on the east coast and come around.

We can take this up a level from Ireland and look across Europe. In the future we may be able to connect grids across Europe and although I do not want to jump ahead, we are starting this with our interconnector of approximately 700 MW to France. Over the next number of years we really would be looking at the idea of a grid to which we could connect. In other words, we would not have to bring everything back to the country and we would be part of the European grid.