Mr. Justin Moran:

To take the operations and maintenance opportunity, for example, it is worth mentioning that a number of people are already working in operations and maintenance in Ireland. One company, off the top of my head, is Enercon, a turbine manufacture from Germany whose Irish national headquarters is located in Tralee. It employs about 150 people across the country, most of whom are turbine technicians who travel throughout the country. These are jobs in rural Ireland for engineers and technicians who, in many cases, have come back from other countries. When we move to offshore, a typical 500 MW or 600 MW offshore wind farm would have between 80 and 100 operations and maintenance jobs once it is up and running in whatever port or harbour is identified as its support.

On the point about public engagement, we need to get out there as early as possible and constantly try to find ways to improve. It is fair to say that as an industry, the approach and the investment of time, money and resources we put into community and public engagement today is very different from what it would have been, say, ten years ago, and we are getting better and stronger in that regard. I accept the point that it can be confusing if a project changes or is amended. There is a communications task in being able to explain to people that a project has changed because they asked us to change it. It is about giving them a sense of empowerment and control over the decisions being made in their area. We need to explain that we have moved a particular substation because we were asked to, or that we are constructing it differently because we were asked to. That is work we need to do.

On the NPWS, when we are developing onshore wind farms and, in the future, offshore wind farms, we need to do so in such a way that allows us to protect Ireland's biodiversity and to ensure that what we are developing will mitigate environmental impacts where possible. The earlier we can engage with the NPWS about projects, the better and stronger not just we will be but also the projects themselves. There are steps we can take as an industry. I take this opportunity to plug that we have just launched our all-Ireland pollinator plan with the National Biodiversity Data Centre. Wind farms increasingly take up a specific geographic location or space. We need to examine what we can do to build, operate, maintain and manage them in a way that enhances Ireland's biodiversity. There are many such interesting and exciting projects at individual wind farms throughout the country.