Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I can hear.

The development of offshore wind power is critical.

One of the significant developments even since the publication of the plan was the publication by EirGrid last week of its plan, Shaping Our Electricity Future, which is really the how, where and how much of how we meet this really ambitious 80% renewable electricity target. It was engaged for two years with very extensive public consultation in trying to answer those questions. It sees offshore wind as critical to developing this renewable, low-carbon electricity system for ten years with many of these projects. That will present the opportunity for the first phase of development. There are six on the east coast and one on the west coast. That is in reply to the question about the west benefitting off the Sceirde Rocks to the west of Connemara. The six on the east coast run from Dundalk bay down to beneath Arklow.

These will be the first auction and the consent will be issued by my Department rather than the marine area regulatory authority, MARA, because it will take a number of months, or approximately a year, for the authority to be fully established once it is legislated for. That is why it is really important we get the legislation through the Oireachtas before Christmas, as that would give the industry and all concerned real clarity that this is happening and real. In the second and third phase of options, which will take place in the coming years, MARA will be responsible for managing consents and ensuring the environmental planning behind the development of offshore wind goes hand in hand. As members have said, we must ensure the development of marine protected areas and our offshore resources are in tune with each other and we get good spatial planning development of the resource.

This will not be developer-led and the planned system will be based, as much as anything else, on the development of an offshore grid to attract power, bring it ashore and share it with other jurisdictions in a way that makes it a viable economic and balancing low-carbon system.

It is hard to know exactly what will develop where and it will depend on the options system and companies getting through the planning system. We have an independent planning system that will ultimately assess the environmental credentials and planning approach taken by each individual project. I expect the majority of the first phase, towards to the middle of this decade, to start being built on the east coast, as six of those first projects will be based on that coast. These are also very close to where there is a very large demand and Dublin is a large demand centre. The advantages of being able to connect to the east coast is very real.

Further development this decade will then take place in both the southern and western waters. As I said earlier, that will be driven very much by EirGrid's plans, as grid access is one of the key aspects we must get right. Having that grid connection capability to the south and west will see projects in both those areas starting to succeed in the second and third phase auctions.

A huge number of developers are interested. One recently pulled out, having been initially interested in a particular project, but I am informed up to approximately 70 developers have expressed an interest to be involved in a very real way in looking to tap into this resource. This is achievable, deliverable and will bring us power in a way that would make efficient use of our grid. We will not have to build significant grid extensions across the country when we are bringing the power ashore, particularly to areas where there is a large demand load. That is what will make this a very viable, successful and realisable project.

I am conscious of time and I want to get through as many questions as possible. There was a very extensive citizens' engagement in a process developing this Climate Action Plan. It started earlier in the year with a series of climate conversations that my Department organised. There were approximately 3,800 citizens involved, as well as a large number of institutions. That consultation informed the plan and it was an appropriate approach of doing the consultation before the perceived solution or outlined plan. That came first, as was absolutely appropriate.

We now need to do this on an ongoing and more detailed and engaged basis. I met a group of younger climate activists in Glasgow and they said they wanted to be involved in a very real way. I said to them and the likes of the National Youth Council that we should do that, ensuring such people can get involved with structuring how the next phase of consultation might take place. I mentioned in my opening remarks this new community fund and programme, which is largely to fund real community projects. It also includes funds and the capability to increase input to those sorts of dialogue processes. Members of the Irish environmental network said to me they thought it was a best-in-class example of public consultation. We should take projects like that and use them for wider consultation from here.