Mr. Peter Coyle:

I will take the latter question first. As I understand the matter, there is marine protected area, MPA, legislation in the works. I do not know what it contains, but bear in mind that there is an extraordinary ambition as regards marine protected areas. At the moment, 2.5%, or a little less, of our huge maritime area is designated as an MPA in one fashion or another. The ambition is to increase that to 10% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. This is a huge issue.

There is a great deal of expertise and experience in this area. Generally speaking, the relationships between this industry and the various experts in the field, such as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, BirdWatch Ireland and others, are good and open. They are experts and bearers of a great deal of scientific knowledge in this field. As long as we talk to one another and there are reasonable structures, legislation and so on in place on both sides of the picture, we will find ways and means of getting along. There will be individuals who object, of course.

There will be concerns in various areas but generally speaking, the MPA bodies, the NGOs and experts in this field, are positive and constructive and are trying to find solutions as we are. There is good experience. Let me give one instance. At our annual forum, which is a big get-together, held a couple of weeks ago we looked at scientific research in Scotland, which was looking at what happens to seals. The research was monitoring seals in an area in the Pentland Firth in the north of Scotland with underwater blades rotating under a tidal machine. We do not have a tidal resource in the Republic; there is one in Northern Ireland. There were no instances of collision between a seal and this underwater blade. Similar experiences are being shown in regard to birds for example with offshore wind farms. We are optimistic that wildlife has some sort of learning capability to stay away although there is still a road to be covered.

On the issue of grid, everything in this area is happening at warp speed by the standards of an extremely capital intensive and technically complex industry. I am not an engineer but it is truly complex stuff. Putting new grid in place takes time. We believe there is more grid available than the 5 GW available to the offshore industry identified by EirGrid. In various submissions we and other organisations advocate a fresh look at that situation. In the longer term, grid is one of the most challenging areas for us to exploit our resource. There are many ways forward in the 2030s, called non-grid off-takes, where you do not need grid. You do not necessarily need grid to make hydrogen to, for example, make ammonia. You could actually have a hydrogen plant offshore alongside a wind farm and just pump the hydrogen ashore. Overall we need much more grid. We are fortunate in having an excellent and responsive body in EirGrid. While we of course have our rows and arguments with EirGrid, it is a terrific body by and large. We are optimistic that we can find solutions but it is a challenge.