Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to say a new Bill has been created that will deal with the gaps in the foreshore problem to which the Deputy refers. We also have developed a unified planning system, which as the Deputy noted is not under my Department, and the Minister of State, Deputy English, has made an announcement in respect of that. There will now be an integrated planning process, which will be regarded by the offshore sector as a significant step forward. That infrastructure is being put in place but it will have to be passed by the House. It is priority legislation from the point of view of the outgoing Government, as I am sure it will be of any incoming Government.

As the Deputy stated, offshore wind is a significant potential opportunity and it is an area where other decisions will need to be made about the type of infrastructure we use to underpin it. It will have to be decided whether we will require individual providers of offshore wind farms to make their own landfall or whether we will try to create a State-funded infrastructure that would make it a more integrated package. We will need to make decisions early on that and there are a number of crucial points along the way. The first offshore wind auction will be in the latter half of next year and a number of legacy projects will be enabled to compete in that, although it will also provide the opportunity for others to come in. We are determined that the framework will be there to support the sector because it is a significant opportunity for Ireland.

If the Deputy would care to send me details of the interruptions, I will see whether there is anything we can do. A great deal of effort is being put in to maintain the level of telecommunications service. The reports I get show a very high level of performance, despite in some cases 60% growth in the demand coming onto the systems. As I said earlier, we have made spectrum available temporarily to try to support the delivery of service. If there is a pattern of gaps, I would be happy to pursue that with ComReg.

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