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

I thank the witnesses for the presentation. It is impressive to see the amount of progress that is being made and the establishment of the plan-led approach, the task force, enterprise and skills and the cluster. My central question would be if the political system seeks to lift our efforts on offshore renewable opportunity to a higher level, what would the witnesses recommend should now be done because it seems they have put in a framework and it is hard to criticise what is in it? Given deteriorating energy security and increasing urgency, what would the witnesses recommend we think about to take it to another level?

What is the scale of the employment cluster and the witnesses' ambition in terms of its future? Are we talking about a very significant employment cluster within Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland or is this part of a comparatively middle-of-the-road opportunity from the perspective of the enterprise sector?

I have studied the taxonomy and think it is a very useful tool. My central question concerns the degree to which the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has taken this on board. We have a new national development plan and €140 billion. The impression I get from people who come before this committee is that public procurement is still running pretty much as it always did and if there is not a very strong demand from the procurer to a create the most sustainable path for procurement, nothing much happens. There has not been that decisive shift. Whoever is commissioning the work is the primary driver. A taxonomy is not being applied by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to force those commissioning work down a more sustainable path.