Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader at her convenience to organise a debate in this House on the renewable energy sector. We frequently talk about the importance of moving away from fossil fuels owing to the positive impact that would have on the environment and we look at the various different options that are there. Of course, more wind needs to be captured to generate electricity and we need greater use of solar. It is very clear from the work we all do that there is considerable pushback in communities over what is now referred to as onshore wind. Many of the sites that were more accessible and more easily developed with less intrusion on local rural communities have already been developed and yet we have targets we must meet by 2030 and 2050.

If we are to continue as we are, we will get heavily bogged down in appeals, judicial reviews etc.The area on which we need to move much more quickly is the potential for offshore wind capture. There are many proposals out there but when you talk to the developers, the State seems to be considerably behind on the designated areas mapped for development. There seems to be a dearth of skill sets in the Department of energy to perform the necessary groundwork to allow for applications for the various permissions. It would be useful to have a debate with the Minister to tease out that aspect of it. From the way I have looked at it, there seems to be a logjam. Investors or companies that were looking in Ireland for potential investment are now looking elsewhere. That is potentially damaging for us because not just is there huge potential to capture wind offshore for Ireland’s future needs, there is also huge potential to develop new skill sets to allow us be part of the technologies involved and benefit our country economically.