Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right that we need a whole-of-government response to this issue. There is a real opportunity here for Ireland to move within a generation from being an energy importer to being an energy exporter using offshore wind, onshore wind and solar to produce electricity, while also using offshore wind to produce hydrogen, a dispatchable fuel that we can use to replace gas and petrol and diesel in some cases. That would give us energy security and price stability. Even if climate change were not happening, the lessons from Ukraine show us how important it is to achieve energy security and price stability.

My Department is keen to get involved, particularly in using the IDA to attract investment into hydrogen and offshore wind. We propose to set up a cross-government task force to deal with offshore wind and hydrogen. It will be led by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications but my Department and the IDA will be very involved.

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