Ms Kate Dempsey:

On whether it is viable to deploy offshore floating at scale in Ireland right now and whether it is something we should prioritise, this links to the comment about people's perception of offshore renewables and, perhaps, the objection that politics is facing in respect of their development. A total of 80% of our enormous offshore wind resource lies outside the footprint of fixed foundations, at a depth profile of about 60 m. If we are to truly harness our offshore capabilities in Ireland, it has to be through the turbine technology of floating. To be clear, it is not just about floating to grid; there is also floating to hydrogen. They are separate concepts. Currently, our licensing regime does not give clear guidance to those projects that are establishing themselves to address floating to hydrogen, to the effect that we are unsure about it.

The reason I say this is I own one of them with business partners of mine. We are developing projects we believe are more environmentally acceptable and responsible and, unfortunately, our current framework does not give us clear guidance on whether ours will become a phase 2 project. We do not know whether it comes under the category of innovation. Perhaps we are innovative. An example of that is that on our wind farms, we have planned for biodiversity restoration and decommissioning to include an increase of biodiversity beyond what it would have been before we had ever developed in those areas. Many of the projects that belong to some of the participants at this meeting will reflect the fact offshore wind is taking into hand the national planning framework and ensuring we are addressing integration with fisheries and aquaculture insofar as is possible.

I am an aquaculture operator and I own a farm on the east coast, which actively works with offshore renewable energy because it is a robust farm with offshore technology at its core. We are looking to integrate as much as we can. When we talk about the opportunity in respect of offshore floating, I do not think it is a conversation for the future but rather for now, particularly if we would like the public to come onside with renewable energy in the offshore space. That should be taken into consideration.