Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to hear the Minister of State make those comments. I have no doubts about the capacity of Mark Mellet. I know the man well. I was on the justice committee and defence committee for many years and so had reason to meet him many times. I am acutely aware, though, of the pressures on both the private and public sectors when it comes to hiring people with the appropriate level of expertise across the board, whether it is the person making the cup of coffee or the one planning the next wind farm off the coast of Wicklow, Waterford, Wexford or wherever else we are looking. There are extreme pressures in that regard and I want to ensure we have the capacity to be flexible when it comes to recruitment concepts coming out of MARA on how the authority can reach the level of expertise it needs to deliver these targets. It will do so, not for us, but for the environment and the less well-off who we must support through energy poverty, among other things, by dramatically reducing the overall cost of the generation of electricity. I can see this extraordinary potential off the coasts of Ireland, especially off the Atlantic coast, and we can only do that if MARA is a success.

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