Professor Barry McMullin:

I will take the second question first. Building the Shannon LNG terminal would take a certain period of time but the problem with electricity supply has nothing to do with natural gas supply, so it would not address the threat to electricity supply this winter or the following winter in any way, shape or form.

In terms of offshore wind, there are already many successful offshore wind projects working in Europe and in the world more generally. There is no reason it will take ten years. We already have one small offshore wind facility off the Arklow Bank but that is a very small offshore farm. It is absolutely possible, with the right incentives and schemes in place, to build out offshore wind much faster than the ten years that Deputy Healy-Rae suggests.