Mr. Peter Coyle:

The east coast has two features. It is shallow and therefore lends itself to the technology that is available today, kind of from Amazon if the committee will excuse the expression, which is bottom-fixed wind. There is grid available off Dublin and Wicklow and there is a big market in the Dublin-Wicklow area. It is very important that we get the first offshore renewable energy support scheme auction away. It will focus on projects that are quite well-advanced in terms of their planning off the east coast. If that gets held up or hindered in any way, we will have problems achieving targets in the 2030s and we will lose credibility in the huge investment world that now surrounds offshore renewable energy. Bear in mind that while 5 GW is enormous for us, it is fairly Mickey Mouse for other people. Scotland has just approved 24 GW of offshore wind, of which 60% is floating. Wales has a 4 GW target of floating alone. This is business for big companies and big developers with big pockets and big credibility in the investment world.

The east coast is vital. I live in the Deputy's constituency. I can see a bit of the sea from my attic window. I am conscious of the types of issues and objections that may arise about visual impact. The developers who are candidates to build these farms off the east coast, particularly off Dublin and Wicklow, are putting a great deal of effort into community support. There are all sorts of protections under the Maritime Area Planning Act to ensure people have a real say. They might not think they have a real say, but they do. There are considerable benefits that will arise for the community. To take Dún Laoghaire alone, for argument's sake to illustrate the point, the community benefit provisions that are being made by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications are such that just one wind farm off Dún Laoghaire would probably pour €4 million per year for approximately 25 years into that community for community projects. That is over and above normal Government expenditure, and there will be all sorts of safeguards to ensure that it is not a substitute. There are those aspects.

I throw the issue back to the Deputy. The challenge for him and other coastal Deputies, Senators and leaders around Dublin and Wicklow, because those are communities that will be particularly affected, although not exclusively, is that they must show leadership in this area. They have to try to get communities to understand that we need to do this or the lights will go off. We cannot continue depending on Russian gas and coal to keep our lights on. It is absurd. As a country which has the oil of the offshore wind and wave world - we are like Saudi Arabia or, as the late Brendan Halligan used to say, we are Europe's battery - we cannot mess it up. However, it will require not just people like me and others in industry but also political leaders to get out in front of this and deal with the objections and issues that will arise. That is not always going to be easy to do. I am the first to admit that.