Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree fully that now is the time to invest and now is the time to act. However, some of those actions, such as introducing the maritime spatial planning legislation to allow us to develop offshore wind, will not actually deliver emissions reductions until the latter part of this decade. It does take that length of time. As to the scale of investment, we are talking of hundreds of millions if not billions of euro, which we should borrow now, but borrow in the knowledge that by the time we get through the planning system, build out the grid, contract the turbines and then install them, it will be the latter half of this decade when that kicks in. The 7% averaging is the correct approach. It is not like we can flick a switch and immediately have offshore wind. Certain products can be developed relatively quickly and, for example, solar farms in the field should not take that long to install. However, anyone involved in the industry would recognise they have already been planning for five or ten years just to get to the point of being able to bid in to develop those resources.

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