Mr. William Walsh:

I thank the Deputy for her questions on this. As my colleague has outlined, the offshore opportunities are like a jigsaw. The Deputy identified the pieces of the jigsaw - the grid and the investment from developers. In SEAI we have seen a real acceleration in this. We have seen the Department focus on addressing the delays in the consenting system. Within the Department there has been an upscaling of resources in this area. We are seeing an acceleration of activity to support the deployment of offshore wind based on the timelines outlined in the climate action plan and possibly sooner given the security of supply issues arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As an organisation, we are encouraged by what we see but we need that to continue to accelerate. We also need strong engagement from communities because they are critical to this piece. Their buy-in, engagement, consultation, consent and promotion of this are very important because we have seen in the past that if we get things wrong, it pulls everything back. It is a piece that we all need to push for as a society.