Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The last point is bigger; I do not expect Professor Crowe to have an answer. We are starting now to harness the resources that are available to us in terms of wind energy and offshore wind energy. Inevitable, when human activity is brought into a natural environment, it causes disruption. We will never mitigate that completely. Yet, there are hugely positive benefits of offshore wind and how it will allow human activity not to cause an impact.

We are probably going to have to build in some level of compromise in terms of the impact we have on a marine area. That will be a challenge for many people but it is a bigger challenge we have to grasp. We will inevitably have to discommode or impact the balance that exists in these areas because the alternative is to have a far greater imbalance on land and elsewhere.