Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As someone who brought forward the legislation to establish MARA and provide a planning and consent regime for offshore renewable projects when Minister of State with responsibility for local government and planning, I believe it is important that we urgently address the west coast. We have DMAPs for the east and the south but the west coast will be a significant challenge. There are a lot of implications in terms of advanced technology we need to use to do that. I spoke to a number of actors in that space. I have been speaking to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, about it. His view also is that there is nobody who can come at this point in time with a successful turbine that can sustain what is required on the west coast. I have been down at the Marine Institute in Cork looking at the research it is carrying out. It is something on which it has my full support. We urgently need to respond and have a DMAP there. While there might not be developers lining up because of the technology and the work we have to do, it is something we need to crack very quickly because it will be critical to our success as a country.

We are doing a lot of work with timber. We sit on the construction steering group. We are working with modern methods of construction to try to create a balance. Many of the big companies are using that process and I can see - even locally - the difference it makes. We are very open to trying to work with other products that have a more attractive carbon footprint. This is a big challenge but we are very open to it. We have set up a centre of excellence for MMC in Galway that is working very well. I recently met a number of people working down there. They are doing good work and will help us with our housing targets. This is the good we need to pull out of climate change, which is also very important.

Hydrogen is a major challenge. We are very interested in and open to supporting our SMEs along that road. It is one that must provide a significant solution as well.