Mr. Pat Keating:

Regarding the Deputy's first question, the Minister for Transport released an updated policy statement in December that called for a multi-port approach. He has examined extending and expanding the Connecting Europe Facility to fund future port investments in respect of offshore renewables. A multi-port approach is a good one to take.

The resource is so large. To return to the scale of what is required, there is no port in Ireland that is large enough to do this alone. We are not really competing against other ports. There is room in this for everyone, given the scale. In any event, the market will examine the comparative advantages of each individual port. It will be like any site evaluation. It will include the likes of us and, potentially, the Port of Cork for floating offshore, with our deep harbours, plentiful supply of water storage, wet storage and existing deepwater port facilities. We have a supply chain that has already been built up for large-scale shopping. We have significant comparative advantage in that regard.

The funding aspect, from a ports policy point of view, needs to be refined further and there is no dispute in that regard. The Department of Transport has set up a co-ordination group among ports for the sector. The funding is one issue that relates to the time delay. For example, we know we will have to have new deepwater facilities available by 2030, and the facilities will have to have been built before the industry starts using them. There is a timing funding gap that needs to be addressed. Ports are commercial bodies that base their investment appraisals on what is called the financial credit value adjustment, CVA. There is room to bring in a socioeconomics CVA because the benefits of putting that port facility in place are broader than just those relating to the port finances. There is also the enabling of that €100 billion investment of offshore platforms. That will happen, but the multi-port approach is the way to go.

On the marshalling port question, our development and plans are guided by our master plan, which was first published in 2013. We called out offshore renewables as a potential then. Our approach is to create port facilities and we have a multi-site approach to this. It is not just Foynes but also Moneypoint and other zoned sites on the Shannon Estuary. We bring them all into play and provide a multi-site solution. In some areas, there might be supply chain fabrication yards, while other sites might have electrolysers for hydrogen and ammonia production. That is why we are updating our master plan. We have appointed an international company, Bechtel, which is a global leader in port infrastructure development and energy development, to assist us on that and to provide a full, holistic plan for how we can sustainably develop the Shannon Estuary to accommodate this huge resource. It is about the supply chain. We will not see any wind farms on the Shannon Estuary. The supply chain will enable wind farms to develop and then we can, potentially, bring that power ashore to produce hydrogen, ammonia or alternative fuels.