Mr. Noel Cunniffe:

At this time last year, we published a report called, Revolution - A vision for Irish floating renewable energy. I am happy to share a copy of the report with members after the meeting. We represent a large number of members with commercial interest in floating wind energy projects. Many of these projects are developing to compete for 2030 and deliver as part of the phase 2 process for Government. Phase 1 will be an initial phase of offshore wind energy development, which will include five projects located off the east coast and one project off the west coast.

Floating wind energy is a huge opportunity for Ireland's south and west coasts. We believe that in order for floating wind energy to develop during this decade then there will need to be specific pot within the second renewable electricity support scheme auction for offshore renewables. At the moment this has not yet been decided upon. There was a Government consultation on that a few months and we expect to hear the results very soon. The reason that this sector will need its own pot in the middle of the decade is that floating wind energy this decade will not be able to compete directly on price with fixed-bottom offshore wind energy, which will be the predominant technology that will be developed off our coasts this decade. We believe that despite not being able to compete economically just yet, they will become economically competitive in the 2030s. For Ireland, particularly off our west coast, there is an enormous potential for floating offshore wind energy as we transition to overall energy independence. So we feel that it would be a worthwhile investment by the State to invest and allow some floating offshore wind energy projects to connect by 2030 in order that we can take those learnings and start to bring in the supply chain and develop that within Ireland. While this is nascent technology in many countries around Europe, the supply chain is not yet there so we have not lost that opportunity yet.