Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do think we will meet those targets. If we miss them, we will not miss them by much. I do not accept we are a laggard in this area. I take the view that we took the decision to prioritise onshore wind. It made sense. It was cheaper to do, easier to do and quicker to do. We prioritised that. Approximately 35% or 40% of our electricity comes from renewables now. That is not bad at all by international standards. That is almost all from onshore wind. We are really getting going on solar as well. There was a period a few weeks ago where 10% of all the electricity that was generated in Ireland came from solar. That would have been unthinkable not so long ago. The next big step is offshore wind, including interconnection, batteries, grid development and all those things that are required. I will be hosting a special meeting about that in the Department of the Taoiseach in a few weeks’ time. It will map out how we can achieve the vision of energy independence within a generation, which I think we will do.

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