Mr. Gary Tobin:

Again, there are significant opportunities across both services and the manufacturing industries for development in regard to offshore wind. What has certainly struck us is that when we look at jurisdictions like Scotland and those in northern Europe, there is no shortage of demand for ports and manufacturing facilities that can facilitate the development of this sector. Our colleagues in the Department of Transport are currently overseeing a review of Irish ports’ offshore and renewable energy business cases. They have signed an advisory agreement with the European Investment Bank to undertake an analysis of demand capacity and financing options relating to Irish ports’ offshore renewable energy plans.

There is a great deal of work happening in respect of the various Irish ports. Different ports will probably end up specialising in different areas; some will probably focus on operations and maintenance and some may focus more on manufacturing. My colleague Mr. McDermot was in Killybegs last week meeting those involved in the industry there. Again, there are very positive attitudes on the part of the stakeholders in and around that area to get involved in this sector.

There are also opportunities in the context of the all-island economy. The Deputy is correct about Belfast Port. There are opportunities for companies in Northern Ireland to be engaged in the development of the offshore wind industry on the island of Ireland. We certainly will be talking to InterTradeIreland, which is another body under the aegis of our Department, to see how we can maximise the potential for the all-island economy.

One of the things that struck me and surprised me a little is that when we recently travelled to Scotland to talk to both the industry and the government stakeholders there, they very much are in the mindset of collaboration with us. There is so much opportunity here that it is not necessarily a case of that if Scotland wins, Ireland loses out. There is so much potential opportunity here that we can help the Scottish in terms of developing their industry and they can help us.

One of the actions in the strategy that we are going to be focused on in the initial few months is to visit Esbjerg Port in Denmark, which has transformed itself into a port very much focused on offshore renewable energy in terms of services but particularly in terms of manufacturing. They have created the cluster the Deputy talks about.