Mr. Peter Coyle:

To answer the last question first, there will be an auction of support because bottom-fixed wind even cannot compete with traditional forms of energy generation. It is normal to provide support, which ultimately is paid for by the consumer through the public service obligation. There will be one auction of support next year which will deal with the initial batch of projects which will be bottom fixed in the Irish Sea. Floating offshore wind will not feature in that. There will be a second auction, probably around 2025, and that conceivably is the last auction that will be held that can actually bring projects on board before 2030 which is vital. Our view is that floating has to be incorporated in that second option. Floating is vital to achieving the 5 GW target. Much of the available grid for example is off the Dublin and Wicklow coasts. It will be challenging to concentrate so much development there. Another driver in this is the EU state aids approval, which only extends until the end of 2025. Floating has to be involved in the second offshore renewable energy support scheme auction, ORESS 2, or it will not feature until well into the 2030s and we will not achieve our 5 GW by the 2030 target.

In regard to the question on the NDP, I am not particularly an expert on the NDP. I would suggest that we have gone off the boil in regard to providing support for early stage developers in wave and tidal, in the new technologies generally. There currently is not an appropriate grant scheme to help them along. It is worth bearing in mind that of the 250 or so small companies in wave and tidal in the world, more than half are in Europe. More than half the patents are held in Europe. The European Commission has now set a target of 100 MW to be wave and tidal by 2025 and 1 GW, which is huge in terms of a new technology, by 2030. We need to put money into supporting small Irish companies. There are some excellent small Irish companies in existence. A modest modification in respect of the NDP in that regard is called for, as is anything that can be done to gear up grid for domestic purposes. We have to bear in mind the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications forecast for an increase in local electricity demand of 50% by 2030. We have a huge growth envisaged in our domestic market but there are also opportunities for export and such things as hydrogen creation.

In regard to how the IDA and Enterprise Ireland are gearing up, I am more familiar in recent years with Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland has some excellent people now working on this, who have been working away for years. It has a new department that will involve this area but I do not think it is where it ought to be. I suspect the IDA is not either. What is missing is a conviction being communicated to those agencies by their political leaders - I am not particularly talking about the Tánaiste, I am not tying this into personalities - and by their Civil Service masters, particularly in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, communicating a vision or demand that we grow in this space. The agencies have the ability and the people. They can attract the resources but they need now to be given a remit to grow a big global supply chain particularly in floating wind, wave and tidal, and then they will get on with it. They are not getting that, I suspect, at present. Therefore their response is not at the optimal level.