Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely agree with the Deputy that we need an all-of-government approach. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, has made that very clear since he came to the Department. If a request is made by the Port of Cork to IDA Ireland, I would ask it to engage with the latter directly. Anything we can do to support the development of offshore wind energy, not just in Cork - I am conscious that Deputy Stanton is here with Deputies O'Connor and Pádraig O'Sullivan - but also across the island, we will do. State lands should be used to facilitate that. There is also a need for a strategy to enable us to get the skills side of things absolutely right. We also need an apprenticeship strategy in order to get young people working in that space now. We have done a great deal of work in the past year in participating at WindEurope and in participating at wind conferences around the world showing our conditions. There is also some amazing work under way. I visited the facility of a company called XOCEAN in Louth last year to see the work it is doing worldwide in this space.

If Deputy Stanton drops me a note on the parcel of land in question, I would be happy to pursue the matter with IDA Ireland and the Port of Cork.

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