John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I am going to use the opportunity of the Minister of State’s presence to raise an issue that partly arises from his comments in the circulars sent to us earlier this evening and partly from an issue on which we had a presentation earlier. Wind Energy Ireland was among the parties that presented to us this morning. Everyone recognises there is significant opportunity for the country and that we have not done sufficient work to harness the natural resources available to us through the development of offshore wind farms. We are being advised consistently that this is something that will create jobs, generate economic activity and offset our reliance on non-renewable energies.

One of the things we were advised of at the presentation, which will probably not be news to the Minister of State but certainly was to me, was that we currently only have one port on the island that can facilitate the development of offshore wind energy and that is Belfast Port. While the presentation mentioned the opportunity that exists in Cork and the work that could be done on that, that leaves out a significant area of our western coast. We all look at these things parochially. It is going to be difficult to avail of the opportunity for those coastal areas to assist with the development of offshore wind energy. I am talking particularly of the work of MARA and the difficulties there is in trying to progress this industry.

We have a national development plan coming up. Where in the national development plan can we see the potential to remedy that and ensure we build and have sufficient port infrastructure to facilitate the development, maintenance and management of offshore wind energy all over the country, particularly on the western seaboard?