Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with an awful lot of what Deputy Naughten has said although I think a cheap shot at Deputy Ryan is beneath the Deputy. I have huge time for the Deputy as he knows. The ambition this country has for offshore renewable is in large part due to Deputy Eamon Ryan's relentless pursuit of this agenda for a long time in politics and long before this Government, and his vision in this regard in wanting to make Ireland Europe's capital of offshore renewable generation. We will achieve this. I agree with Deputy Naughten on the challenge to get there around licensing and the need to set up new entities which are on their way to being set up. Boards have been put in place and I hope that soon a chief executive will be in place for MARA. Of course there is a range of other regulatory issues that need to be resolved and these are being worked through.

The offshore wind task force is attended by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, on a regular basis. He has asked me to come along to the next one. My Department will get more involved in this from an enterprise point of view. Offshore wind is not solely a climate change initiative that can decarbonise our economy and society. It is also a huge industrial opportunity in terms of a competitive advantage for Ireland in the future being able to provide limitless amounts of clean renewable energy coming in from off our coast. The assembly of this enormous infrastructure to be built, I hope in Irish ports, and then assembled in time as fixed and floating off our coastline will have a transformational effect on the Irish economy in terms of employment in parts of the country that do not have huge employment at the moment and in terms of new clusters of industrial activity that will want to be connected to it. I am thinking of places such as the Shannon Estuary, Cork Harbour, Rosslare, Killibegs and other ports off the west of Ireland. There is enormous opportunity. The Department will bring recommendations to the Government in the next number of weeks on a proposal to develop an enterprise and industrial strategy on offshore wind to complement the work the taskforce is doing in terms of trying to make it happen.

Deputy Naughten is right that hundred of millions of euro, if not billions of euro, need to be spent on infrastructure. I do not think the Government will be found wanting on this. The private sector is willing to spend a lot of this money because it is a good investment. We will ensure that if there is market failure, whether in our ports or other infrastructure, the State will intervene when necessary. I assure the House this is not only a focus of the Department of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, although he is leading on it, it is also a focus of mine and of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is assisting in terms of the licensing and permits that are necessary.

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