Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I very much acknowledge and appreciate all the work that is going on in the background, such as the establishment of MARA, the legislation and the planning bits and pieces that are taking place. However, what people really need and want to know is when construction will happen. I take the Minister's point. He said the back end of this decade. The key question for me is as to whether there will be any construction of offshore wind turbines in the lifetime of this Dáil or the next? We seem to be talking about megawatts and gigawatts, but it would be great to see the number of structures that will be put out there. A precondition for this would be the port situation. We know Belfast is the only port on this island capable of assembling these wind turbines. Have we identified a port or two in this jurisdiction that could be used? Have we looked at upgrading ports to facilitate the assembly and construction of these turbines?

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