Mr. David Hegarty:

The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications has commissioned consultants who have developed a project management plan. This is what we are working to. We have had one meeting of our work stream and we will be having more as the process unfolds over the rest of the year. There are definitely opportunities in terms of what the Department has done or is doing. I have mentioned that Enterprise Ireland has a nascent cluster in this area. I think it is called gale force but I may be wrong. It brings together 70 companies that have an interest in this area.

Separately, the Department has done other work. We provide the secretariat for the expert group on future skills needs. We have done some work looking at the likely demand for jobs for the green transition generally. It does not just cover renewable energy. It also covers areas such as retrofitting and electric vehicles. This was a partial exercise. Our initial estimate was that there will be a requirement for 30,000 jobs over the next couple of years. These would be specialised occupations such as engineers and retrofit specialists. We would not regard this as a full analysis of the economic potential of the sector. I absolutely take Deputy O'Reilly's point that this is one area. The White Paper generally does not name sectors or states it will target this or that sector for growth. Offshore wind is the one exception to this.