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

I put it as simply as that, but do not expect somebody else to pay for it. You have to be honest with people that a cost would be associated with it, which they would have to bear, whether that is in the form of property taxes, commercial rates or something else.

Deputy Paul Murphy wishes to characterise me in a certain way, but I am not deeply ideological. Perhaps I was ten or 20 years ago but, at this point, I am only interested in outcomes for people and not ideology. Perhaps time and experience in government teaches you that and you try to get things done. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has assured me the report in the Business Poston Sunday was not accurate. The prices we pay will be similar to those in similar jurisdictions. The best way to harness the enormous potential we have offshore is through a mix of public and private investment. That will involve the State and State-owned enterprises but also private developers and private capital.

That is a practical approach. If we only go public or only go private, we will get less done than if we involve both the public and private sectors in getting this done. That is the same approach I take to housing. If Deputies want to ascribe any ideology to it, it would be the ideology of the social market economy, which is the ideology that the European People's Party and my party subscribe to. It is not a neoliberal one. The social market economy goes back to the Christian Democrats of decades ago and involves the private and public sectors working together for the common good.

In response to Deputy Dillon's question, green hydrogen has great potential. It is a relatively new technology. When I was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I tried to go somewhere to visit a major green hydrogen plant and see it operating. There was none. It still very much a new technology, but it is one we have an interest in. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is setting up a task force to see what the potential for it is. The theory at least is that we could use surplus electricity to create green hydrogen, green fertiliser and sustainable aviation fuels. However, to the extent this is being done at all anywhere in the world, it is being done on a small scale. Things start like that. We need to be part of it and try to be early movers on it if we can.

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