Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. As regards the broader picture around energy supply and security of supply, the very strong focus is on renewables and the entire agenda over the next decade or so will be to develop very significantly offshore wind across the east, west and south-west coasts. I believe the next decade will witness transformative investment in wind energy in particular, including offshore wind energy, and will create a lot of economic activity on coasts along the western seaboard and in the south west. The Shannon Estuary and Cork Harbour port will all be significant centres, as will a number of ports on the east coast. I was in Galway recently for a significant conference on the exploitation of offshore wind with a view to bringing economic benefits to that region.

The consensus in the House, as the Deputy may be aware, over the past two Dáileanna has been to move towards renewables and away from fossil fuels in general, and particularly, of course, away from exploration for fossil fuels. I know the Barryroe licence is an existing one, but my understanding is it has been on the go for quite a long time. By that, I mean it is an area that has been drilled and so on. There have been different iterations but nothing has ever come to fruition. I believe there is an application in with the Minister, who, obviously, is considering that application. It is a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications in respect of that specific application.

More generally, however, the focus is moving towards renewable energy as the basis for our future energy needs. As regards the interim, I accept that gas remains a transitional fuel and will be a transitional fuel well into the future as a backup to wind and that those will be the key aspects. There is no doubt that transitioning to a renewable energy supply base will be challenging in the context of security of supply because the economy has grown at very strong rates in recent years, notwithstanding Brexit and Covid-19, and it continues to grow. In particular, the foreign direct investment side of our economy has been very strong in terms of new investments in life sciences, technology, financial services, all of which is beneficial, and in terms of the digital economy. We accept there are challenges in respect of energy into the future but we are in no doubt that the key focus of the State's activity should be the development of offshore wind at critical mass so that in the mid 2030s the nation should be a net exporter of energy through offshore wind exploitation.

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