Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist thábhachtach seo a ardú . Ireland's offshore wind industrial strategy, Powering Prosperity, was published by my Department in March this year. The strategy seeks to maximise the economic benefits associated with our target of producing 37 GW of offshore wind energy by 2050. It includes 40 targeted actions for implementation in 2024 and 2025 to support our offshore wind industry to reach that ambitious target.

We aim to build a strong and resilient offshore wind supply chain in Ireland, as well as exploring opportunities for Irish companies to play a major role in the development of offshore wind projects at home and abroad. We are exploring the opportunities to leverage Ireland’s existing strengths in research, development and innovation to support the sector to reach the cutting edge of future developments in offshore wind.

Powering Prosperity also focuses on pursuing strategic partnerships with like-minded countries in Europe and beyond, with a specific action to further build on international strategic partnerships with other countries to establish meaningful co-operation in supply chain development and knowledge transfer within the highly internationalised offshore wind industry. With this objective in mind, the Minister, Deputy Burke, led a recent engagement with Scotland to establish an annual joint offshore wind energy event. The focus of this year's event was to foster a collaborative relationship rather than a competitive one, working together to address common challenges with shared solutions. In the longer term, the strategy will consider routes to market for our abundant clean renewable energy, including carrying out a sectoral assessment of the concept of green energy industrial parks. Actions also focus on exploring regional development opportunities in coastal areas close to where renewable energy will come onshore. The recent Scottish event involved a round-table discussion on research, development and innovation and skills, both here in Dublin and in Cork, alongside Scotland’s Minister for Climate Action, Gillian Martin. It was a productive discussion with representatives of the offshore wind industry in both countries that examined shared opportunities and challenges.

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