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:

If it is possible, I would like to highlight one issue that we have not spoken about yet, which is the interest in Ireland from the international supply chain. It is enormous. We have already mentioned several delegations. In the past week, we have had delegations from Norway and from France. I have been with delegations from the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain. We have had contact from as far away as Brazil to try to bring their supply chain here. They see the opportunity that Ireland can provide in this decade, as well as the growth that it can provide. We would like to ensure that while we are delivering this industry we have that domestic supply chain in place to capture as much of that as possible. Therefore, in years to come, we will be able to send delegations to other countries. Mr. Ivers already spoke about some of the great work that Enterprise Ireland is doing in that regard. We have an established, world-leading onshore wind sector here. Let us take those skills and develop them nto an offshore wind sector we can be proud of and can export.