Dr. Paul McGowan:

Regarding the Deputy's question on offshore safety regulation, the best example is the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, which regulates the safety of offshore hydrocarbon facilities in Norway like we do in Ireland at Corrib and, previously, Kinsale. The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway started a project, based on legislation, in 2020 to determine an appropriate safety regime for offshore renewables.

The matter is being examined more widely across Europe. For example, the Health and Safety Executive in Great Britain has begun work on advising offshore renewable firms as to what a safety regime might look like. It has been interacting with them in advance of legislation being introduced.

We are members of various safety bodies, the most relevant in this case being the North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum, NSOAF, whose members are safety regulators that are involved one way or another in hydrocarbons in the North Sea. The NSOAF has established an offshore renewables safety working group to begin examining best practice.

Currently, we do not have a statute in place that identifies who is responsible for the regulation of this new sector in terms of major accident hazards. Its hazards are different than those in the hydrocarbon sector. Obviously, there are no hydrocarbons involved, but collisions, fires and other hazards can still occur on these installations. As such, it is important that there be a safety regime. Our perspective is that the priority should be to identify and put in place a safety regime and to identify who carries that out. We are agnostic in the latter respect. We have experience from the offshore hydrocarbon sector, so it is something that we would be equipped to do, but a statutory framework would be needed in order for that type of work to begin.