Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with other Members of the House in congratulating President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and I support the decision of the Cathaoirleach and Ceann Comhairle to invite President-elect Biden to come to Ireland and address the Houses of the Oireachtas.I would also like to wish the former Captain of the Guard, John Flaherty, and the former Head Usher, Colm O'Rourke, well. They have given outstanding service to this House over many years. They were always courteous, obliging and helpful in every way they could be. I wish them well in their retirement and I hope they have a long retirement.

I want to ask the Leader about the marine planning and development management Bill and about the area of offshore wind power. The Bill is supposed to be enacted by next March and there are targets the Government and the country have to meet. Will the Government have to buy credits to meet the 2020 targets? The only offshore wind farm we have is on the Arklow Bank, which generates 25 MW. That is a small wind farm in the scale of things. The Government action plan, published in 2019, proposed that there would be 3.5 GW by 2030 and the programme for Government stated there should be no problem in having 5 GW by 2030. The marine planning and development management Bill will have to be enacted before that. I ask the Leader to invite in whichever Minister is responsible for this because it goes across a few Ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Ministry for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is important that we would have a debate on that because all the planned offshore wind farms are on the east coast and there is a huge challenge on the west coast, as well as many advantages. Much could be done there.