Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications mentioned, Ireland has one of the best offshore renewable energy resources in the world with a sea area of 400 km², which is about seven times the size of our land mass. We have more offshore energy potential than most other EU member states. Ireland's coast is one of the most energy-productive in Europe with a long-term potential of 70 GW of ocean energy opportunity, which includes wind, wave and tidal, within 100 km of the Irish coastline. The climate action plan includes a suite of actions to realise the potential of Ireland's offshore renewable energy while the programme for Government commits to the achievement of 5 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030 and a long-term plan to take advantage of a potential of at least 30 GW of floating wind thereafter.

Aside from helping to reach our renewable energy and emission reduction targets, offshore wind development will entail investment of tens of billions of euro, which will deliver long-term high-value indigenous jobs relating to installation and maintenance of generation assets and associated infrastructure and services. It will provide development of indigenous supply chains and further associated employment and the development of small and large-scale port infrastructure breathing new life into maritime assets. Community benefit payments to local hosting areas for use in education, energy efficiency, sustainable energy and other climate action initiatives are so important and have been mentioned by various Deputies. Owing to large-scale offshore wind developments in particular, these contributions are expected to be significantly larger than those of on-shore counterparts.

Ireland's ambition for the offshore renewable energy sector is contingent on delivering a licensing and regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy. This will provide certainty to project promoters and provide a pathway to realising the necessary investment in offshore renewable energy. This is crucial to our climate ambitions. In order to achieve our 2020 targets, the Department has been working closely with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on the development of the Maritime Area Planning Bill. This Bill, which is expected to be enacted before the end of this year, will establish a new agency to regulate development of the maritime area. This agency is to be called the maritime area regulatory authority, MARA. The transition protocol of the Maritime Area Planning Bill designed relevant projects. These are projects that were applied for or granted a lease under the Foreshore Act 1933 or offshore wind projects that were eligible to be processed to receive a valid grid connection offer at December 2019. The relevant projects are expected to be the first to enter into the new maritime area consent regime under the Maritime Area Planning Bill. The Bill provides the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications with the power to invite maritime area consent applications from those projects in advance of the establishment of MARA. It is important to note that the relevant projects will still be required to apply for all the requisite consents and planning permission and will be subject to the full assessment procedures by An Bord Pleanála with regard to planning.

The main pathway for the delivery of the renewable electricity objectives set out in the climate action plan would be via the renewable energy support scheme, RESS. This scheme is designed to provide support to on-shore and offshore renewable electricity projects in Ireland through competitive auctions. With a primary focus on cost effectiveness, the RESS delivers a broader range of policy objectives, including community participation through community benefit funds, increasing technology diversity, delivering an ambitious renewable electricity policy to 2030, increasing energy security and sustainability and ensuring the cost-effectiveness of energy policy.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is developing the terms and conditions of the offshore wind-specific auctions under the RESS. Owing to the specific scale and nature of typical offshore wind farms, dedicated auctions are initially required to support the long-term potential of the technology in Ireland. At least three offshore auctions are planned for this decade. The first offshore wind auction, ORESS 1, is planned to launch in quarter four of next year. A new framework for Ireland's future offshore electricity transmission system was developed by the Department and approved by the Government in April 2021. The new policy provides for the future development, operation and ownership of Ireland's offshore electricity transmission system. The new policy provides for a phased transition from the current decentralised offshore transmission system model to a centralised model over the course of this decade in line with free scheduled offshore RESS auctions. This phased approach should be seen in the context of the wider transition towards a plan-led approach to future offshore renewable energy development in our marine area.

The enduring centralised offshore grid model with transmission system assets to be planned, developed, owned and operated by EirGrid has been identified as delivering maximum societal benefits. The Government recognises that more interconnection with our nearest neighbours and the future development of a European offshore mesh grid would be key to realising Ireland's short and long-term offshore renewable energy objectives. The climate action plan commits the Government to updating the existing electricity interconnection policy next year, which will facilitate further interconnection with the EU and the UK beyond the Celtic and Greenlink interconnectors, which are in an advanced stage of pre-construction development.

I will address an important area of work, namely, managing the relationship between offshore renewable energy, biodiversity and marine protected areas. The national marine planning framework, which was established in June 2021 by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is Ireland's first marine spatial plan. It aims to plan when and where human activities take place at sea and ensure these activities are efficient and sustainable. The protection of biodiversity is one of the overarching policies of the national marine planning framework. The framework already applies to decision makers and State actors in the maritime area. Existing measures such as environmental impact assessment and appropriate assessment requirements already apply to the maritime area. These environmental protection measures include the conservation of Ireland's Natura 2000 network of sites and the protection of listed species and habitats.

Offshore renewable projects will also be subject to full environmental assessment procedures by An Bord Pleanála during the maritime planning permission application procedure and must comply with all relevant applicable provisions of European and national environmental law. Any available data that may indicate the potential for an area to be designated as a marine protected area will be considered as part of the planning assessment to be undertaken by An Bord Pleanála as part of the new regime. Decisions will be based on the environmental data available at that time.

Officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, are actively examining further opportunities for engagement with the fisheries sector, having identified and recognised a need for effective engagement between the seafood and offshore renewable energy industries. Work has commenced on the establishment of the seafood industry and offshore renewable energy working group, one of the primary goals of which will be to develop a communications protocol between these two industries.

I have hopefully demonstrated the level of work across government to develop our offshore renewable energy sector sustainably, to realise the economic benefits for citizens and the State into the future and, as importantly, realising that the potential of our offshore resources will not be done at the expense of environmental and biodiversity considerations. We will continue to engage with other maritime users and stakeholders such as the fishing industry.

We are supporting this motion. I am also happy to support the amendment from Sinn Féin. I am glad that the debate overall was constructive. It was substantial and there was a lack of pantomime and theatrics today. People really engaged properly on this. I believe we do need to have an all-island approached to this. We are sharing territory and this applies in our marine areas also. We are sharing the same atmosphere. It is important that we can balance our power needs around the whole island. Everything we can do to advance that is important. I welcome today's motion and debate. It was useful. I paid attention to everything that all Members said and have tried to take everything on board. I will be following up on some of those things later.

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