Mr. Pat Keating:

The infrastructure required falls under two classifications, one being enabling and the other being the actual wind farm and the build-out. The enabling infrastructure is primarily the grid and the ports. In the plans for the Shannon Estuary, the State has a role, initially at least, in the enabling process of infrastructure funding. The developer infrastructure is done through the ORE system or a private wire network and other route-to-market strategies. Upfront and to get Ireland ready, it is about ensuring we have the enabling infrastructure in place to accommodate the sector. As I said, that comes back to grid and port infrastructure. Regarding our plans on the Shannon Estuary, there are two main infrastructure projects currently up and running which are going through or interacting with the planning system and preplanning, which are the Foynes Island development and the ESB's Green Atlantic at Moneypoint project. On top of that, we have looked at the potential for cable corridors through the estuary and, obviously, in consultation with EirGrid.

However, there is potentially a cost for that grid infrastructure. That is outside my expertise. Eirgrid would be better placed to inform the committee how that might be modelled. It needs to be in place or there must be a plan for it to be in place because the timing is important. If we look at phases 1, 2 and 3 under the enduring regime first, potentially at wind farms - apart from the Skerd Rocks wind farm which is fixed and can be managed within some of the existing port infrastructure on the estuary - there is a large-scale opportunity around the entire coast.

On the competition piece, we need several ports here. We are competing internationally, not nationally. The regimes in other countries, such as Portugal, Norway, the UK and France are slightly ahead of us. The resource is so large that we need a multi-port approach. That is part of the port's policy statement that was launched in 2021. That is a good thing. However, we must hone in on the enabling infrastructure. From a port perspective, our plans are all about ensuring we have the port infrastructure in place by the time it is needed. The funding model is part of that. Bechtel is a big infrastructure company so it has funding expertise. Part of its remit is to look at the various strategies and funding approaches. All this infrastructure will be commercial in time, but there is an initial period of two or three years, depending on how long it takes to get to the run rate or production stage. It could be a turbine a week or 30 turbines a week depending on the style of port infrastructure. Foynes Island needs to get up to 20 turbines per annum under phase 1. That has a capital expenditure cost on the offshore renewable energy, ORE, side of €360 million. The question is how that is funded. It can be funded under project finance, once the run rate of the 25 turbines is established, which means the scene has been set for the demand on the estuary for developers to build wind farms. Until we get there, we are potentially looking at a quasi sovereign debt model where the likes of the European Investment Bank, EIB, commercial banks syndicates as senior debt; the likes of the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, as equity debt; the port as equity; and the Connecting Europe Facility, CEF. By the way, we have already been successful in obtaining funding for Foynes Island for the pre-planning stage under the CEF Trans-European Network for Transport, TEN-T programme. We are already on the CEF radar. That is a 30% capital expenditure potential on works. That is a hugely important factor. Going back to the funding model, as I said, it is somewhat premature today to be talking specifically about what the right model is. We have started the conversation with our shareholder which is the Department of Transport in this case. Models are available, but given the nascent nature of this sector, the State-----