Professor Karl Whelan:

To be fair, it was always so.

We are a small, open economy and as long as I have lived, we have been dependent on external energy supplies and were affected by the first and second OPEC shocks and so on. Whether it is oil or gas, we have always been externally dependent. I am by no means an expert in energy markets, but I continually read about this great opportunity for us to have more energy security coming from offshore wind. However, I also read that developments there seem to be disappointingly slow. A large Norwegian company recently pulled out of being involved in offshore wind in Ireland, disappointed by the slow pace of progress.