Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
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First and foremost, I congratulate the Chair on his appointment. His opening speech was very encouraging in that he is serious about doing a serious job.

One of the issues that confronts coastal areas, particularly on the Atlantic side, is the inability of the harbours to support the wind industry should we start to develop wind and hydrogen generation in the Atlantic. The problem is that none of the harbours is capable of taking craft of the size needed. I hope that fairly early in the term of this committee, we will determine how we can support those who want to develop wind energy projects. My engagement with the Germans in recent times has shown they are going as far as Australia and New Zealand rather than where they originally identified, which was the western coast of Ireland, the Atlantic coast. It would be good to carry out an investigation on that pretty quickly.

I was delighted to hear the Chair mention the emergency services in the coastal regions, including the Coast Guard, the RNLI and the Naval Service. In any discussion with respect to air cover for our coast, I will have to recuse myself because I am in the middle of a court action. I cannot compromise that.

There are a number of issues that we will consider. I mentioned to the Chair just before the meeting the case of the trawler in Arklow and the devastating impact the matter has had on a family. A family is caught up in bureaucracy on this. I formally request that we put it on the agenda.

Once again, I congratulate the Cathaoirleach. I look forward to working with him. There was a lovely opening to the meeting today.