Mr. Pat Keating:

The Government needs to call out the big opportunity and that needs to feed down. The mandate needs to be delivered from the Government to the various Departments. The approach at the moment appears to be an analysis of what Irish demand is going to be and what the Irish demand requirements are. If we look at it through that lens, we are missing the big resource because we are saying the big resource is not essential. The opportunity here is bigger than energy. There are socioeconomic opportunities that are probably unprecedented for this country. The scale of this is enormous. That should be the ambition and the objective. It is not about satisfying Irish demand. It is about using this resource in a European context. It is also about the resource itself. If we look at it through that lens, then we can start to say that we need to prioritise everything to make it happen. The DMAPs need to be prioritised. The DMAP process will, at the earliest, be completed by quarter 1 of 2024. MARA is due to be operational in quarter 3 of 2023. It is a resource issue. MARA needs to be fast-tracked. If we want to be looking at the Atlantic Ocean resources, the number and scale of applications that will need to be processed will potentially be significant.

MARA is a kind of filter for An Bord Pleanála. A MAC is required before an approach can be made to An Bord Pleanála. There will be roughly a two-year gap because site investigations and so forth must be completed. An Bord Pleanála must be resourced properly.

There are issues around some of the big international companies, including the likes of Shell and Equinor, that have looked at Ireland. The resource sells itself because what we are selling here is an infinite supply of green energy but there was a level of frustration when such companies engaged with the system. They decided it was not yet the right time.

It is about getting the policy framework correct. It is a matter of fast-tracking the prescribed architecture noted in the Maritime Area Planning Act. I do not think anything needs to be changed. It is a matter of putting the resources into the system.