Mr. Noel Cunniffe:

I might take the first cut at it and Mr. Moran may speak after that. Last year we published a report, entitled Harnessing Our Potential, which looked at the investment opportunities for offshore renewable energy. It found that there is a commercial opportunity for port infrastructure off the west coast and east coast which can help become a supply base and create an indigenous supply chain to support the offshore wind energy industry in Ireland. It is certainly something that is worth looking into. We believe we could have a commercial opportunity for a staging port which would be worth about €70 million. There would be a commercial opportunity for an operations and maintenance port worth about €350 million.

This report was based on the climate action plan target of 3.5 GW rather than the increased target of 5 GW. Between now and 2030 we will need an investment in offshore wind energy of approximately €18 billion. Looking forward to post-2030 potential, we believe an additional €42 billion is on the table. It is all about how much of that opportunity Irish companies can tap into and harness. We are very much minded of that and we have a very active supply chain working group looking at those opportunities.

One of the final comments was on the west and north west. To return to the grid infrastructure, one of EirGrid's current options, as part of its consultation, concerns the savings that can be made in grid infrastructural requirements if some large energy users can be moved from the Dublin region to other parts of the country, and it is examining the west and north west as options in that regard. Delivering that will require public policy support to achieve the transition and infrastructural development in things such as fibre broadband that are very important to the large information-driven industries developing around the Dublin region at the moment because of their broadband infrastructures. That will be vital for bringing not just investment in renewable energy but also the demand out of Dublin and towards the other regions.

Mr. Moran or Mr. Blount might wish to comment on the NPWS or the other issues.