Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Offshore Renewable Industry Forum and Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industry: Discussion
Mr. Noel Cunniffe:
Absolutely - as I mentioned in my opening statement, one of the recommendations from that was the establishment of a high-level implementation group. We are not aware if this has been established yet. We would like to see that established as soon as possible. It was referenced by Deputy O'Reilly, who asked what type of skills were in short supply. We are already experiencing across the industry a shortage of planners, marine biologists, ecologists and tradespeople. We need to see apprenticeships begun immediately and partnerships with technological universities and third-level institutions around Ireland and to do that, we need that action plan to be brought together so that we can come at it as a country rather than each individual college, some of which have stepped forward on their own volition to try to develop apprenticeship and third-level programmes to service the needs of the industry. We need to see co-ordinated action and for that reason, we need that implementation to be established as soon as possible.