Mr. Justin Moran:

I have a couple of quick points. In terms of delivering on the north west, there are two things I would argue, and then I will bring in my colleague Mr. Kelly to talk about the importance of early engagement. The first thing we need to do is deliver the phase 1 projects we have at the moment. That delivers a supply chain and confidence in Ireland as a place in which to invest. My waking nightmare is that we would lose those projects in the planning system or a judicial review. Trying to sustain investment in Ireland for offshore wind energy anywhere on the island would then go out the window. The critical number one thing is delivering the phase 1 projects. The second issue, which Senator Blaney touched on in his comments, is the importance of the electricity grid. Last year was our second-worst year on record for the amount of wasted wind energy. About 14% of the electricity we could have produced was wasted. We had to switch off the turbines. That is 14% nationally. The figure is significantly higher in the north west and in north Mayo because the electricity grid is not strong enough. We have onshore wind energy projects that have full planning permission and are shovel ready as the saying goes. We are not building them. We actually may never build them because the electricity grid is not strong enough to get out the onshore power that those can generate. If you are talking about a much bigger offshore project, the real challenge is trying to reinforce the electricity grid. That means delivering projects like the North-South interconnector, which we have been awaiting for some considerable time. I know EirGrid is also working on other grid reinforcement projects in the north west but we need to get them built and connected. We are not going to build an offshore windfarm to stand idle in Donegal Bay, nor would the committee members want us to.