Dr. Peter Heffernan:

I had not heard such criticism. I heard suggestions about other sites but when one is doing a comprehensive assessment there will of course be parties that have interests in different areas. An independent assessment was carried out.

Reference was made to the Orkneys in the context of collaboration with the United Kingdom. Two weeks ago we had a session in Belfast with Invest Northern Ireland on SmartOcean which embraces the application of sensor technologies and computing services to ocean energy, among other sectors. They have a deployed tidal system in play in Strangford Lough already. The Orkneys have what is still a very remote location and it is up and running but the combined package in Ireland will in time prove itself to be very competitive. I am impressed with the speed with which the Scottish authorities moved in the early stages. I compliment them on that. I see many opportunities for this to become an agenda item for the Irish-UK council because there is tremendous mutual interest in this area. They have a similar resource capacity. Both of us have the potential to be exporters of this energy. If it is captured it is beyond the consumption capacity of this island to take all the renewable energy that could be produced. In the medium to long term it is truly of a game-changer scale economically for Ireland to be able to export energy but it will take time.