Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the very worthwhile presentations. I was an economist by trade originally, and the infant industry argument is probably as old as economics itself. The question for Ministers and so on is how much State support is needed and for how long, as well as how to best structure that State support so the ultimate benefit for Ireland can be brought home. There have been many useful suggestions but I want to sort them out in my head.

If we do as the witnesses say and go ahead with a 1 GW auction for floating wind projects, how much more will consumers and the State have to pay in the interim compared with other competing sources? If we ring-fence an auction and guarantee offshore wind an outcome, I presume that sector would be paid much more by the consumer than the others. I want to get a feel for the penalty that users will have to pay to get some of the offshore energy into the grid quickly compared with the alternatives.

The other matter that strikes me is that we have an ambition to hit 80% on the Irish grid. If we go above the 5 GW target, it seems we are really pitching for the export market. What additional infrastructure needs to be put in to create that? How advanced is electrolysis for converting wind that we not be using here into hydrogen and creating an infrastructure to export it to Germany or elsewhere? Do we need to start planning interconnectors? What additional State infrastructure is required? What I am trying to get back to is asking what sort of upfront capital is expected from the State. I fully recognise we need to sort out our planning difficulties but what is the scale of the upfront exposure that the State must shoulder and we must defend to taxpayers in order to make this a reality?

I am very conscious the Attorney General is looking at our planning laws and considering how to make them fit for purpose in the face of these massive infrastructural investments for climate and other adaptation. What advice would the witnesses give to an Attorney General seeking to draft a new approach to planning? On one side, planning leads to speedier implementation of infrastructure while, on the other, people might ask what rights are being lost. We must be careful on that front. What is the view of the witnesses in that regard? In the round this has been very useful but we probably need a little more on the economic side so we can defend this major bet by Ireland on our offshore capability.