Mr. David McGarry:

The State, that is, the Department and Government, has set out how it sees offshore winds being developed on the east coast, the south east, and then in the west over time. What I would like to see in Shannon Foynes is things happening faster, that the opportunity of the west could be tapped into sooner than 2030 and could come to fruition. The west is in phase 3, as the Deputy knows, and that is some time away. It is to bring that forward. This is evolving very quickly and was not being talked about two years ago. It is really moving very fast and the opportunity is there to be grabbed.

My sense is that there is a lot more joining up, although there is a ports co-ordination group through the Irish Maritime Development Office, IMDO. It is fair to say there is a lot more joined-up thinking there and more relationships and prioritisation which I can sense than where it was five years ago and three years ago to now. It is coming together. All of this requires prioritisation and leadership at Department, Government and agency level. The climate change is the opportunity for Ireland and we are ideally poised. We can always be critical. Things never move as fast as we would all like, but I can see the leadership is there at a departmental level compared with two or three years ago. I believe it is coming together. I would prefer if the west were prioritised because that is a massive opportunity for the State. It is a huge opportunity and solves a lot of other challenges.