Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his statement. First, because I have not seen Deputy Coveney since he took up the new role, I congratulate him on taking on the portfolio in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Perhaps it is the most exciting one, from a climate point of view, because of the opportunity there will be for this country in the years and decades ahead as Ireland seeks to become a net energy exporter, certainly, we would hope, beyond 2030. Everything that entails, the supply-chain development, the enterprise, the vast opportunity that is there for Irish people and Irish companies - new companies will be founded on the back of this - is exciting. I wish the Minister well during his tenure in the Department.

I welcome the Minister's comments on offshore renewable wind. It is a subject that the Minister is passionate about and I fully expect that he will bring something fresh to the Department in that regard. I also welcome his comments on the challenge around decarbonisation of cement, which is a huge challenge, and of course the non-public sector commercial buildings as well.

I have a few questions. I will begin with the offshore wind piece and maybe talk about the all-of-government challenge that is there, perhaps more than the specific one with the Department. The Minister will be aware that there are private interests out there - developers - who tell us they are chomping at the bit to get going. I attended a briefing earlier where the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications officials told us that there will be a package of policy statements delivered by early next year. Some of those will be released this year. Some, such as the hydrogen policy and the inter-connector policy, are imminent. They are very much with that Department but it speaks to the all-of-government piece because the opportunity is so big and there is not one Department that can own it. As a senior member of Government, the Minister will have something to say about that.

Moving away from the offshore wind piece, I want to talk about an area, arguably with the remit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, on which the Minister might have something to say. It is the locating of our business parks in this country and how that can impact on emissions, particularly in relation to transport. There is an opportunity as we go forward to locate some of these IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland facilities in locations such that people can go to and from them in a low-carbon way. The old thinking, I suppose, would be we would build an industrial estate at the crossroads of the motorway network but now it might make more sense to bring some of those closer to our urban centres so that workers can live in the urban centre and get easily to them by public transport, walking or cycling. That is a big, important piece as we go forward.

I want to mention a significant industry in my constituency that the Minister will be familiar with. Analog Devices is a huge success story for Limerick. The company really got off the fence in the last few weeks and months vis-à-visa critical infrastructural project in the city, which was a cycle lane connecting the Raheen industrial estate into the city centre. It was refreshing that a large industry recognised the importance of that kind of infrastructure for the work that it does. In an increasingly competitive world, such companies are looking beyond the scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, and the scope 3 as well, and that is where transport to and from their premises comes into play. Anyway, there was a question there about spatial policy within the Department and where we locate these facilities going forward. I have other questions but I might come back in later.