Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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One of the criticisms that I have heard is that there are people out there who are saying they are finding it very hard to get access to the Department and get any opportunity to talk about what they are doing.

Offshore wind has been talked about for a long time in this country. Going back decades the potential of wind energy has always been known. The question is how to commercialise it and maybe now we are getting closer to that. One of the things that I have a concern about, which I have raised in public before, and Mr. Tobin has mentioned ORESS himself, is the development off the south coast in terms of fixed-bottom wind. Mr. Tobin has highlighted the change that is coming. We are now talking about 350 m turbines with 100 m circumference blades but pylon depths of not beyond 60 m or 70 m and, therefore, that tells us that there will be something in order of a 280 m structure sitting up out of the water, which is a very large structure. I think that the new blades will probably give a 15 MW output, which I understand is larger than anything that is in Europe at the moment. I am concerned about the impacts on the likes of the copper coast off the south coast in Waterford. We have not seen the outline of the draft DMAP. Can Mr. Tobin instill confidence in me about this matter? I presume that he has some awareness of where the DMAP is and the potential planning arrangements being considered so that we will see fixed-pylon wind energy to the European standard of not less than 22 km offshore. Does Mr. Tobin think that is feasible within the DMAP being considered?