Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I know the Deputy's interest and concern in this from conversations and consultations that I, other Ministers and the Department have had with those who will seek to build out these facilities. The next auction, as I said, will be later this year. We are hopeful there will be a number of bidders. The important thing then for those who do not win is that they see a further opportunity. One will obviously win. There may be three, four or whatever number of others. It is important from our perspective that we can show that there is a pipeline of opportunities for the others to follow quickly. We are very conscious of that. Some work has to be done between the Department and EirGrid to develop options for further connecting the grid to lead on to those three sites within the overall DMAP. It is about giving certainty, first of all, that the Government is absolutely committed to offshore renewables and then showing that there is a pipeline, not just with those additional three but also around our coastline, as we progress towards 2040, by which point we have commitments to generate up to 20 GW of electricity off our shoreline. We are keenly aware of the necessity to do exactly as the Deputy has identified and I thank him for his interest in that area.

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