Ms Anne-Marie Clancy:

A key part of the State aid clearance for the renewable electricity support scheme for offshore wind is that a community benefit fund will be required to be established by all projects successful in the auction. The contribution for each of those projects is set at €2 per MW hour. These funds will then be aligned to incentivise investment in local renewable energy, energy efficiency measures and climate action initiatives. For context, under the recent offshore renewable electricity support scheme, the community benefit fund will deliver in or around €4.5 million per annum to sustainable initiatives targeted at those communities living in proximity to the projects. This will be amended and scaled up for future offshore projects.