Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I was watching the Minister's intervention on the monitor in my office. I am especially interested in offshore wind. The Minister will know there is a particular group of stakeholders in the Cork region who are eager to greenlight projects off the south and south-west coast. I am always trying to understand the specifics of timelines. The Minister will correct me if I am wrong. He has created MARA, the licences and the consents. Once those consents are given, he can then start to drive on the projects. If we are looking at the climate action plan and the 2030 and 2050 targets and so on, I have a fear the clock will tick down. I seek reassurance from the Minister that we will not overshoot the timelines by dint of not having enough urgency, as I perceive it, in getting those consents up and running across a wider platform. The way I perceive it is that it is all about the east coast at the moment, which is good and laudable, but could the Minister not, at the same time, start the same work and get mapping under way for the south and south-west coast and do it all at the same time? He could pile on the consents and get it done as a matter of urgency, given the potential for energy independence that exists, arising from the potential offering from offshore floating wind.

I am trying to nail the Minister down on specifics because, if I am reading him correctly and we are talking about a three-phase approach, I am not seeing where those phases will be reached and in what year. I do not mean this in a pejorative sense but it seems still to be too vague and aspirational. If we can nail it down, entities such as Simply Blue and others I have been in touch with can get on with their work and get the mapping done, get consents and start putting infrastructure on the water in order that we can meet our energy needs as a matter of urgency. I feel frustrated and that is what I am trying to say to the Minister.