Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Deputy's frustration. I assure him there is no lack of ambition in this regard in my Department or that of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The Minister has done an extraordinary piece of work over the last number of years to make this prospect a reality. We have had our first round of auctions and 3 GW of draft supply contracts are in place. One of those projects is off the west coast - off the coast of Connemara - by the way. This is happening, but we cannot deliver a plan that aims to deliver 37 GW of offshore wind power generation in 25 years overnight. We need to change the planning and permitting systems and we need to have a marine plan. All of this is happening and is led by the State. This will take a number of years to take shape, in particular off the west coast. Shannon Foynes Port will be at the centre of a lot of that. We will see hundreds of millions of euro being invested on the back of it. It costs approximately €3 billion to put 1 GW of power generation capacity offshore and we are planning to do nearly 40 GW. That gives us an idea of the scale of investment we are likely to see over the next 25 years.

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