Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith ag an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach agus táim buíoch de gach Teachta as páirt a ghlacadh sa díospóireacht thábhachtach seo.

I have remarks generally framed from my Department's point of view, which leads out on Powering Prosperity. I will try to refer to some of the more constructive comments. If I do not get to a Deputy's point, I will provide information to them. One thing on which everyone in the House agrees is the need to progress this agenda. We all realise that weather events, as we can see in Florida and saw across our country last weekend, show the need to move with urgency in this space. From an economic point of view, we have an enormous resource which we now have a chance to capture and use to drive our green transition. We have ambitious offshore wind deployment targets of 5 GW by 2030, only five years away, 20 GW by 2040 and 37 GW by 2050. To deliver on that, over the past four years, the Government put a number of key milestones in place. We established the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, and prioritised its resourcing. MARA will manage and regulate sustainable activities in our seas and oceans. We also legislated to positively change the management of our seas through the enactment of the Maritime Area Planning Act and established the national marine planning framework.

There were concerns around the marine protected areas, MPAs. Environmental protection including the protection of biodiversity was central to the establishment of the draft south coast DMAP. It acknowledges that the escalating climate emergency is accompanied by a similar crisis of biodiversity, to speak to Deputy Boyd Barrett's point in particular. The four maritime areas in the south coast DMAP were identified after a comprehensive environmental constraints analysis. This analysis identified and prohibited developments in those areas of greatest environmental sensitivity. There are no overlaps between the four maritime areas and EU special protected areas, SPAs, or special areas of conservation, SAC. This includes the seas off Wexford candidate SPA which was recently designated by the NPWS. The new MPA legislation is at an advanced stage of development. However, in advance of that legislation being enacted, the MPA advisory group of independent experts conducted an ecological sensitivity analysis of the Celtic Sea which was published for everyone to see in June. A core objective of this analysis was to provide spatial recommendations for potential future MPA designations in the Celtic Sea which may inform decisions regarding the location of offshore wind developments such as those we are discussing. The MPA advisory group findings highlighted minimal overlap between these areas identified for possible future MPA designations and the four maritime areas in the draft south coast DMAP. The draft DMAP we are discussing today includes provisions that all offshore wind developments must have regard to relevant future protected site designations and new and improved environmental data. That will include possible future MPA designations by the Minister for housing.

We have also been working hard to increase co-operation in the deployment of offshore renewable energy with our EU peers and our peers in Scotland, England and Wales over the past three years including through the North Seas Energy Cooperation. That collaboration will be critical to delivering the offshore grids and electricity interconnection that opens up export opportunities for these resources. That co-operation will also be critical in the environmental and biodiversity protection space so that we can share common information. The results of Ireland's first offshore wind auction last year marked the clearest signal yet that offshore renewables can and will provide an affordable green and secure alternative to imported fossil fuels. The publication of Powering Prosperity, Ireland's offshore wind industrial strategy, by my Department in March confirms that we as a Government are committed to placing the development of offshore renewables at the heart of Ireland's economic growth in the years and decades to come. I pay tribute to the former Minister, Deputy Coveney, for leading out on this. In the implementation of this strategy, the Government will continue to work closely with industry to unlock significant investment opportunities to drive forward our renewable energy ambitions. The notion that we would work in isolation without the expertise is quite frankly ridiculous and would not allow us to maximise economic return. Our Department alongside Enterprise Ireland will enable companies to play a major role in the development of Irish projects. It will support Irish companies to increase their activities in overseas markets. I travelled in recent years to WindEurope with Irish companies doing global-leading work in this space. The all-of-government offshore wind delivery task force will continue to co-ordinate and drive the effective delivery of this sector. It will mobilise our entire society to capture this once-in-a-generation opportunity. That includes ensuring Irish citizens and business are equipped with training and the necessary skills to enable Ireland to maximise benefits from the deployment of offshore renewable energy and the wider green transition.

Many people raised in this debate concerns around fishers and the impact on them. The implementation of the plan we are discussing will not take place at the expense of fishers or the wider seafood sector, which is crucial, as Deputy Shanahan said, in this part of the country, particularly along the Copper Coast and south coast. In preparing the draft plan, fishers were more extensively consulted than any other stakeholder group. That was facilitated through a dedicated DMAP fisheries liaison officer employed by the Government since summer 2023. Numerous meetings took place between Government officials and fish producer organisations, regional and local fishing groups and individual fishers along the south coast. These engagements directly shaped the preparation of the DMAP. There are eight policy objectives in the DMAP targeted at maximising opportunities for co-existence between offshore and commercial fishing. These conditions must be adhered to by project developers and will ensure that commercial fishing can continue within offshore wind farms in the DMAP area. Some of those policies in the DMAP include a requirement that no mandatory exclusions may be imposed on fishing within offshore farms bar exceptional circumstances related to safety. It is a further requirement that offshore wind projects must employ fishery liaison officers to facilitate ongoing and comprehensive engagement with local fishers. They must also establish a fisheries management and mitigation strategy. It is a requirement of the DMAP that developers must adhere to the principle in the first instance of seeking to avoid or minimise adverse impact on fishers.

There were some queries about floating versus fixed offshore. The south coast DMAP exclusively provides for the deployment of fixed offshore wind projects as was referred to by Deputy Shanahan. This reflects the prevailing sea depths off the south coast which, at less than 75 m, are or will shortly be suitable for fixed technology. Fixed offshore wind is a proven technology that has been delivered at scale in other jurisdictions and is supported by an existing global supply chain, thereby offering the best prospects for accelerated development. As highlighted by the results in 2023 of our first successful offshore wind auction, fixed offshore wind can be deployed at an affordable cost to Irish electricity consumers. Floating offshore wind is an important emerging technology which will make a significant contribution towards meeting Ireland’s medium- and long-term renewable energy objectives. Floating technology will be particularly important within deeper waters beyond the technological capabilities for fixed offshore wind in the south-west Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Future offshore DMAPs in the coming years will identify prospective maritime areas for deployment of this technology beyond 2030.

Area 1 was referred to many times. Area 1 is Tonn Nua, which has been identified for the first 900 MW. It is situated just over 12 km from the shore at its closest point. Deputy Shanahan raised that point; it is aligned with similar distances in existing and planned projects globally and throughout Europe. Earlier, this year, Denmark designed six new offshore wind development areas, all of which are located closer than 22 km from the shore and a number of which are 15 km or closer to the shore.

3 o’clock

The location of fixed offshore wind projects globally is determined by water depth rather than by distance to shore. The average water depth of Tonn Nua is 59 m, which makes it an exceptionally deep water development by any global standard. To move Tonn Nua into deeper waters would delay deployment timelines and undermine our legally binding climate targets, which is due to the technical constraints of deployment of fixed offshore wind in sea depths beyond 70 m.

In order to address some of the adverse visual impacts Deputy Shanahan referred to, the DMAP requires all project must prepare a seascape, landscape and visual impact assessment to avoid, reduce or mitigate likely significant effects on visual amenities. That applies to Deputy Connolly's point as well. I will engage with Deputy Shanahan afterwards as my time is up.

I welcome the agreement in the House to this motion This is an exciting start to a chapter. Most of the concerns are legitimate and genuine and they will be dealt with in the process. I heard many Deputies hoping An Bord Pleanála would be adequately resourced and decision-making would be efficient; I recall many of those Deputies voted against the Planning and Development Bill, which seeks to do that, last night.

See this speech in context