Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wanted to point out that I was very pleased to hear the Minister's reference to pipeline projects. I have seen so many projects fall by the wayside, particularly in the 2008 to 2010 period, when my own local authority did not progress with bringing projects up to the point where they could shelve them as "Awaiting funding". Unfortunately a lot of projects were simply stopped dead in the water, which was inappropriate because they are now scrambling to try to update plans and get them through the planning process. As they are specific to transport, I was pleased to hear the Minister say that.

The Minister will be aware of our very ambitious but unquantified plans for offshore wind generation and to become a net exporter of electricity. A report last year was published by Wind Energy Ireland and MaREI, which is an academic think-tank in the sphere. They estimated that our energy consumption at the moment is around 30 TW or 32 TW per annum, rising to approximately 100 TW in 25 years. While we have a very ambitious plan to deliver I believe, 80 GW of electricity in or near our jurisdiction in this part of Europe, I am not convinced we have the means or the mechanism to deliver upon that ambition.

The reason I mention it is because I appreciate some of it will be delivered by private enterprise. Speaking in the abstract, is it possible to consider whether a State entity should engage itself in the process of delivering offshore wind energy on behalf of the State? One could argue that we have expertise already on the island of Ireland. I am aware of joint ventures, which of course are welcomed. The committee membership has observed some of those joint ventures first hand. However, if we are talking about 25 years of planning and beyond, is it not prudent for us to at least consider it?