Mr. John Fitzgerald:

I will try to answer those questions. I will start with Deputy's question on carbon lock-in. It is incredibly difficult to do deep decarbonisation. Ireland is probably the leading country in decarbonising our electricity system as an island system. It is very difficult to decarbonise. Carbon lock-in will have to be actively tackled in our economy to try to escape from the clutches of carbon That is an ongoing process that will continue through the coming decades. We built our economy, in terms of our power, transport and agricultural systems, over 100 years based on carbon. Therefore, it will be devilishly difficult to extract ourselves from carbon.

It is welcome we will have a new marine planning Bill. It needed a push and it certainly got that. I understand by 2021 we will have a marine spatial planning strategy. It is important that system is streamlined so that people can develop projects in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible. The marine spatial planning and development Bill is important and it should be expedited as a priority and continue to be a priority.

In terms of our ambitions for energy security and the use of offshore wind or other energies, what I have outlined is a European context. It is not arguing that offshore wind should be counted towards X% of our energy security system. There is no doubt it should be but what I am espousing is a vision and a view that we would say we have this incredible resource. However, it will not get developed. Nobody will ask us to develop it. We need to be on the front foot and develop it ourselves. The primary market for a scale of 20 GW or whatever is the European market and Ireland will be a secondary market. By virtue of having all that energy on our doorstep, we will enhance our own security of supply. We need a better network and better connectivity. I applaud the Celtic interconnector and other forms of connectivity with Europe. That is the way we will develop the future. We will not do it as an island power system. We will have to do it as part of an integrated pan-European system.