Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. It is encouraging to hear of the volumes we are now generating in the context of what our European neighbours are doing. Ireland is well positioned in Europe to be a leading light in this regard. Of course, we should have been moving on this years ago and ramping up over the last decade. Our offshore wind resources are by far enough to comfortably satisfy our electricity needs. The Minister will be aware of several industry insiders who have argued that we should increase our ambition even further. Given the number of projects at various stages of planning at this point in time and the potential total capacity of 29 GW or 30 GW, which the Minister mentioned, it seems that the target of 5 GW by 2030 could perhaps be increased. The current target represents the minimum of what we would do if we were serious about tackling the climate crisis, securing Ireland's energy future and protecting ourselves against the geopolitical threats on the European Continent we are living with at the moment. The past few months have shown that we need to look at this matter through that prism.

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