Mr. Philip Newsome:

I do not think we can give a date today. As members are aware, the Climate Action Plan 2021, published last November, set out our work plan on all these issues over the next years. There will be an update to the climate action plan in 2022. We will be in a position to give a clearer timeframe. The important thing to underline about hydrogen is that our focus is on green, renewable hydrogen. While there is maybe hydrogen of other colours and hues across Europe that is perhaps more advanced, we want to harness our onshore and offshore wind energy, which might otherwise be curtailed or have to be turned down by EirGrid. There is significant potential for that energy to go into hydrogen production. The focus has to be on clean and renewable hydrogen. We published a number of consultations on offshore renewables. One recently closed which was on phase 2 projects that would be relevant for the island communities on the west coast. It looked at things like combining offshore wind farms with electrolysers and producing hydrogen. We are involved in a number of initiatives, such as the North Sea grid, which looks at hybrid wind farms, interconnectors and hydrogen production. Much is happening on this in Europe.