Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The question is whether we will benefit from this. Of course we should sell energy if we have enough of our own, but in a situation in which we have very difficult targets to meet and must massively increase our domestic production of renewable energy, saying we should sell it to England before we have enough of it ourselves is a somewhat spurious argument. These issues need to be teased out.

In the midlands - and I am only asking the questions - serious issues arise with regard to proximity to people's homes. Are we looking at best practice for proximity to homes and to the coast in the case of the Dublin Array project? I have an open mind on these issues but I want to see best practice and proper public consultation and I want the Minister to say why there is a 22 km buffer zone for offshore wind energy in Germany, the Netherlands and other European states, while the UK and Denmark are also now considering bringing in a 22 km buffer. Crucially, I want to know what revenue we will get in the form of tax and royalties from the production of this energy. Will there be guaranteed security of supply to the domestic market? Will the energy produced go against our targets for the development of renewable energy or will they boost another country's targets if the energy producers decide to sell or mainly generate for other markets? These are serious questions that need to be answered. Before we can develop these resources, we need to be sure we will benefit from them and that they are being developed in an environmentally safe way.

See this speech in context