Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I take the Deputy's point about Kilrush. There are other towns across the country where we have particular difficulties. I believe this green energy revolution will benefit such towns. It will not always be the big projects. The Moneypoint development for offshore wind is a really large-scale project and it will take some time. However, there are immediate opportunities. Earlier in discussion with Deputy Gannon, I mentioned that we now have programme projects developing anaerobic digestion. The area around Loop Head, Kilrush and Kilkee might be the sort of location where that might fit in within the agricultural economy in that part of west Clare.

This is controversial and there are different views. In County Clare there has been a lot of controversy about the development of wind farms but that has the potential to bring benefits to the local community. While job numbers are not that large, increasingly employers and investors will be looking for access to clean power. County Clare is very well situated on the west coast to have that renewable power. It is not just the offshore energy generation; we need to look for other onshore opportunities and every county has that opportunity.

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