Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I cannot remember the exact timeline for it but phase 2 will come out in the next week or two and then there is a series of steps. We have to deliver the hydrogen strategy this year. We also have to think about how we use the power. Of the 7 GW, we have designated that we want innovation for 2 GW. We have to develop further interconnection. The Greenlink interconnector to Wales and the Celtic link to France will not be the limit of our ambition. We need new interconnectors.

We need industry to be clear and to come forward with specific projects, particularly for those 2 GW and for conversion into molecules rather than electrons. We need industry to come forward with projects for which contracts can be issued. Industry has a role. To come back to what was said earlier, this is best when it is State led because consistency and good planning are needed. One of the big challenges is environmental planning. For the State to take a lead in that helps industry because we are better placed to get that right, to share the data and to make sure it facilitates development. To be clear, we are in a race. The British Government is ahead of us and wants to accelerate. The German, Belgian, Dutch and French, both our neighbours and those farther afield, are all looking to develop our own power as one of the answers to Putin's war.