Mr. Pat Keating:

Since I was before the committee last March, we have updated our master plan, as I said. We employed a company called Bechtel, which has global expertise in this area. We have put some science and quantification around the potential in offshore energy, which is 70 GW within a 36-hour tow time. That quantifies the resource within a proximity to the port, which is very important for the cost of production of that electricity. Ports need to be close to the resource to cut down the transport costs of moving equipment and people, which is part of the operations and management aspect.

Moving on from that, we basically mapped out what infrastructure was required on the estuary. The natural deep water of the estuary is important, particularly for floating wind but also for fixed. Depths of 10 m to more than 15 m are in abundance in the estuary. We identified during the master planning process that there are four core projects necessary to kick off the offshore hub, which will cover the entire Shannon Estuary, as per my opening statement. The appendix will give members a flavour of what is required. As I said, four key projects are required to facilitate the supply chain to build out wind farms, whether fixed or floating. They include the integration hub at Foynes Island and the Green Atlantic project at Moneypoint, the promoter of which is the ESB.

The third project involves the wet storage aspect, which is a critical requirement for this sector. At the key phase, particularly for floating wind and to a lesser extent for fixed, turbines will be producing at a steady state, with a run rate of a couple of hundred megawatts per annum being produced or prepared, or maybe one to two turbines per week. That will be a steady-state production cycle. There will have to be a wet storage area on the waters because it will not always be possible to tow the devices because of weather windows, supply chain tightness and the like. Wet storage is a critical aspect. We have identified areas on the estuary that do not conflict with the anchorages or shipping lanes and offer significant space to allow for the build-up of stock or inventory if there are weather window or supply chain issues.

The fourth key project is to do with the operations and maintenance aspect, which arises once things are up and running. Our whole intent is to assist the industry to build out its turbines. The Cathaoirleach's question is about what we need to do that. It is necessary to look at how we interact with the system.

The first part of what is required, which in under way at the moment, is the designed maritime area plans, DMAPs, which are under the offshore renewable energy development plan, OREDP, II process and are due to be completed next year. That timeline fits with the process. The DMAPS define the areas offshore, particularly in terms of the Atlantic, and different DMAPs have different parts of the coast. They will define the areas that maritime area consents, MACs, will be granted to. Looking at the interaction of the industry and infrastructure, which is the ports piece, it is DMAPs, followed by MARA handing out a MAC, and it will then go to An Bord Pleanála. Those are the first three critical stages for port infrastructure. We are working closely on that front with the Department of Transport, which is ensuring that our journey through the preplanning and planning is as assisted and prioritised as much as possible.

In respect of the key milestones, it is important that we stick to the timelines that are currently being published, which is the DMAPs completed in the first half of next year. That will enable developers to seek MACs. MARA is due to be up and running in quarter 3. It is already established. It will be operational in quarter 3 of this year, or perhaps sooner. We welcome that. That is important from a supply chain readiness point of view. As a port company, we must have our infrastructure in place before the developer needs to use that infrastructure. With MARA on the way, it enables us to receive the MAC, hopefully, this summer. The MAC is needed in order to go to An Bord Pleanála for planning.