Mr. Justin Moran:

I might first touch on one of the points the Deputy made, which he has made to me a number of times previously. It relates to community benefit and to ensuring that will be spread over the lifetime of the project. It is something we would like to see as well and we would expect to see it from our members, but the community benefit fund as a requirement of the contract an offshore wind farm will get is related to the duration of the contract. We will clearly say to our members that just because the contract is running out, that does not mean they get to close shop and go away. They will still need to support those local communities but the contract will run out after 15 or 16 years.

As for our engagement with the fishing community, we both do that at a project level, whereby officers talk to fishermen on specific piers and around harbours. We are also increasingly doing it on a national level with the existing fishing organisations. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage recently appointed a chairperson for what is called the seafood offshore renewable energy working group, which will bring together about 11 or 12 fishing organisations and us, representing the offshore wind sector, but also - this is important - the Departments and State agencies that are relevant to this, such as Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. These people have been put together to sit around the table and ensure that when we develop these wind farms, we will be conscious of the impact they may have on marine biodiversity and the environment and, in particular, on the coastal and fishing communities that depend on those waters for their livelihoods and to pay rent and send their kids to college.

Not only should these wind farms not be an impediment to them, there is an opportunity here. I might bring Mr. Ivers in to talk about this in a moment. There is enormous opportunity here for people with marine skills and there are very few people in Ireland with more marine skills than fishermen. They would be able to work and be part of the development of offshore renewable energy. It would also be useful to hear from Mr. Ivers about getting Irish companies into the supply chain. We want Irish companies, whether semi-State bodies or private sector companies, to get into the Irish supply chain. Green Rebel is one of the leaders in that at the moment.