Dr. James Carton:

I thank Deputy Cronin. It is not too often that people ask me about blank cheques but I am happy to discuss the matter. On Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan's comment on what is going on, there are many developments in green hydrogen in Ireland and across the world but if we continue at our current pace in Ireland, we will probably have solutions and infrastructure ready for 2060 or 2070. That is way too late.

On the HyLIGHT project, through research across MaREI, NUIG, UCD and DCU and research by our colleagues in the North, we are doing a lot of the groundwork to pull the strands together. Effectively, however, there is a stepping process. We need to get the industry, regulators and infrastructure, in addition to the likes of the ESB and EirGrid, up to date on the technology and capability. These are mature in other countries but we need to learn about them here.

One recommendation from a Hydrogen Mobility Ireland report, certainly on vehicles and heavy-duty transport, which would be the focus, is to have supports similar to those for battery electric vehicles. This should be kicked off sooner rather than later. An interesting point on that is that it ends up being the resident tenant, as we call it in shopping centre terms, to allow other applications to grow. One of the applications, which we could discuss in respect of data centres, involves co-firing green hydrogen in backup open-cycle gas turbines. The infrastructure is available and has been paid for. The systems have lives of 15 to 20 years, or longer. We do not want to be burning natural gas in 20 to 30 years; we want to be burning something cleaner. We need to build up the capability. What I note from the industry is that the technology for and capacity to produce hydrogen at a relatively large scale are probably issues concerning the planning regime. I am referring to a planning application and to infrastructure deployment. It will be within this decade, or within the next five or six years.

What is missing from policy is a focus on creating and supporting demand, be it through fuelling stations for heavy transport, auctions, decarbonising or moratoriums. If backup power has to be 100% green and it is open as to how it is produced – it could be biomethane, hydrogen or whatever factories want – the market can solidify on the best solution and timeframe. Hydrogen power probably needs Government support, moratorium support, in the initial stages but it is less than what we have asked for in respect of battery electric vehicles since they were launched in the mid-2010s.

Demand and achieving it are important. It is a question of starting off slowly and speeding up quickly. As I said in my opening statement, we can have a huge amount of experience under our belts by 2030 and build out vast resources in the 2030s so as not to have this happening in the 2070s. I will be well retired by then. I hope that answers the Deputy's question.