Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have an ambitious target to reduce our emissions by 51% by 2030. Some in the House believe we should abandon those targets but I firmly believe we should focus all our efforts on reaching those targets and reducing emissions by 51%. A key part of that will be renewables and a key part of them will be both offshore and onshore wind but the pace at which we are rolling out wind energy is too slow. Part of the reason for that is issues such as foreshore licences. A myriad of foreshore licences are stuck in the system at the moment. We cannot even find out where they are and when a decision might be expected on them. I realise that Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, should be up and running in the early part of next year but these foreshore licences need to be decided upon. When MARA is set up and marine area consents are issued, applications will go on to An Bord Pleanála. I do not believe An Bord Pleanála is ready or resourced to deal with these applications at the moment. We need to ensure the board is resourced and that it has the right expertise to deal with these applications.

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