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

I thank Deputies for their questions.

When it comes to renewable energy, I do not accept that we are laggards at all. We now produce about 40% of our electricity from renewable energy. That is a lot higher than many other countries. I think what happens sometimes - and it is understandable - is that people who are in a particular subsector or niche see things from their perspective and not from the wider perspective. Often, people who promote floating offshore wind energy see only that. They do not see that there is more to offshore wind energy than floating. They do not see that there is onshore or solar. If we look at things from the point of view of the public interest, we should look at them in the round. Of course, it made sense in Ireland for us to do onshore first. That is why we will do offshore later. Onshore was the quickest, least expensive and most efficient way to do it. Other countries that are more densely populated or have different geography were not able to do as much onshore as we did so they went offshore. That is the way we need to see it. As I mentioned earlier, during one period in recent weeks, 10% of our electricity came from solar. A lot more can be done there, and pretty quickly. Solar can be done very quickly. We will have huge amounts of solar energy in Ireland before the first new offshore wind farm is built because it can be done in months or a couple of years rather than five to seven years, which is probably how long offshore and floating offshore will take.

I am aware of the reports in the Sunday papers about us having the highest cost. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, briefed me on that and informed me it is not the case. Perhaps we are not comparing like with like. I understand that in the UK, for example, the price that is paid for the electricity is index-linked and, therefore, goes up every year whereas we are not going to do that. It might cost more at the start but because it is not index-linked, it gets cheaper over time, if that makes any sense. I will let the economists work out the details of that. The Minister assures me that we are getting a fair price.

Deputy Haughey asked about MARA. The answer to the question is "Yes". I know the authority is recruiting but I do not want to swear to that at the moment. I will make sure the Deputy gets a detailed reply from my office about that.

On the ports, €250 million is going into Rosslare Europort, with more investments to come. We need to invest in our ports. When it comes to public ownership it is best done through our State-owned enterprises like ESB, for example. That is going to happen.

There were no discussions specifically on the Nord Stream pipeline. However, we obviously did have a discussion on the security of pipelines into the future and also undersea cables to make sure they are designed in such a way that they are not easy to tamper with.

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