Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a key issue for the country and Europe, which is the development of renewable energy and the mechanisms to enable us to do that. There is no doubt that Ireland is a wind energy success story, particularly in onshore wind, but because of a lot of controversy around locations in certain aspects that narrative does not often get told. We get a greater share of our electricity, 35% on average, from onshore wind farms than anywhere else in Europe. We are world leaders in integrating renewables onto our grid which can now take up to 75% of total electricity demand from wind farms. Irish wind farms provided 48% of Ireland’s power last February. Last January a significant milestone was achieved when the State reached more than 5 GW of installed wind capacity. That is half way to the State’s 2030 onshore climate action targets for renewable wind energy. The big challenge ahead is translating that into offshore wind and ensuring we reach our targets for the offshore wind agenda. That is what we will do.

It is true the midlands, and the Deputy spoke about Offaly, has experienced the greatest economic disruption, including the closure of power plants. Just transition has been a help but I take the Deputy’s point that it has not fully met the losses of good industrial jobs which people had and the work they had in Bord na Móna. However, there is a transition going on in the midlands, without question, which is quite exciting and interesting and which will power the economy of the midlands into the future. The National Just Transition Fund has disbursed about €16 million. The EU just transition programme is providing up to €169 million. The programme has announced a selection of 91 operations totalling about €91 million so far.

The Deputy mentioned tourism infrastructure. There has been about €36 million in grants from Fáilte Ireland for trails and supports for businesses which are trying to grow the visitor economy in the midlands area. About €12 million is being provided under the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Tóchar wetland restoration project towards survey and restoration planning. There is also a network of electric vehicle charging funding of €18 million. That is across the country.

The mapping is part of the renewable energy directive, RED. I have asked the various Departments to accelerate the transposition of RED as it is critical on several fronts - first, to deal with the planning issues around offshore wind but also, critically, in relation to the mapping issue the Deputy spoke about.

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