Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. As I have said before, the development of offshore wind energy can be our generation's Ardnacrusha moment. We either act now or fall behind our competitors, which are basically Scotland, Germany and other countries. We can harness this energy and export the excess Ireland does not need or we can import it from abroad. That is the choice we are facing. It is as simple as that. We can either harness the energy from wind or purchase it from abroad. Does the Minister of State share my concern that we are not advanced enough, do not have the planning in our ports and do not have any place for marshalling? As I said, Belfast is the only place that can do the marshalling of the product that is needed. We are way behind. The only port I know that has planning permission is Cork Harbour and that is running out. It could potentially take years to develop a planning process in other ports. The committee I chair, which includes Deputy O'Reilly and others, attended Cork Harbour recently. Concerns were expressed to us that we are way behind, are missing the opportunity and do not have the planning, infrastructure and other stuff in place. Will the Minister of State outline exactly what the Government is going to do to address those challenges?

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