Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 10 May 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
Ports Development: Discussion
Mr. Glenn Carr:
I might speak first. Phases 1 and 2 are in the Irish and Celtic seas. Mr. Keating and Mr. McGettigan will want to talk about floating offshore wind farms but the initial issue, as we crawl first before we think we can run, is to get phases 1 and 2 completed.
At this point in time, no port in the Republic of Ireland has the facility to match the requirements for what this industry now requires. Arklow would have been the last offshore wind farm - it went through Rosslare Europort - but the components and the scale of the operation now are far beyond anything like that. Over the last 18 months, as I said, we have been working extensively with the developers and the industry to understand the customer requirements.
Rosslare needs to be built and operational by 2027. The key here is 7 GW by 2030. By the way, it will happen anyway, but the loss would be that the activity associated, particularly with the pre-construction, marshalling and installation which is where the real jobs are and which tends to generate economic enterprise around that area, could end up going to another jurisdiction. At this point, it could go to Belfast, but Belfast is filling up quickly. It could go to Liverpool or to a port elsewhere. The industry will have to make a decision on its supply chain in order to give surety to the auction process that it is going through. If you want to maximise the opportunity that offshore wind brings, as part of the transition from fossil fuel to new green energy, to create real jobs, real enterprise and real regional economic development, you have to have your port infrastructure in place in order to attract the industry to set up its base there. What we are proposing is a €200 million facility. It sounds a lot but, as Mr. Keating has said, it is a multi-billion euro industry here. It is not only the facility, by the way, that should be looked at in terms of a port. This is a national strategically important asset that will drive not only the delivery of these projects but, more importantly, economic development and enterprise in those regions that desperately need that as well.
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