Mr. Vanessa O'Connell:

To give some context to where I am coming from, I moved back to Ireland from the UK last year having spent the previous ten years working in offshore wind there with a Danish energy developer, Ørsted. I was involved in development, construction and operations. Something that I saw that was a success and that has since become a platform for growth of offshore wind and ensured that the benefits of offshore wind energy are harvested for the UK was a sector deal that was signed in 2019. Effectively, it was a partnership between the British Government and industry. It was a handshake whereby industry and the British Government were committing to actions in terms of delivering offshore wind energy in the UK. At the time, the target was to deliver 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030. That target has since been accelerated to 50 GW. In terms of the industry, part of that was to be 60% local content. This was not a mandatory target, but a vision that the industry committed to working towards together.

There is an opportunity in Ireland that is not just about the green electrons, but about creating a whole new industry that can benefit the people of Ireland and generate many jobs. We have some work to do to figure out what that means in terms of tangible numbers. The UK had a target of 30,000 jobs in the industry by 2030 and has already smashed that target. According to a report it has released, there are now 30,000 people working in the industry. The UK envisages that that figure will be 100,000 by 2030.

The scale of the opportunity is probably more than we understand today. That is why we are here. There is a significant opportunity, so let the Government, industry and communities sit down and figure out what is right for Ireland, what our ambition should be and how we will work towards it together. In terms of working together, we welcome the offshore wind energy task force that has been established by the Government, but let us bring the industry to the table and work together in collaboration more frequently. Under the offshore wind sector deal, the UK set up the Offshore Wind Industry Council, through which the industry and the British Government work together, set an action plan and work through it over time.

It is great for us to attend this meeting to discuss what we want, but this is a matter of us continuing to work together on delivering for Ireland. The reason I came home to Ireland was my excitement about this opportunity. Now that I am here, I can see the market beginning to move. There is much that we can do by working together.