Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to this important debate.

I share the concerns of my colleague, Senator Dooley, about whether we are moving quickly enough. The State's objective is that we will have 5 GW of offshore wind energy connected to the grid by the end of 2030. In his concluding remarks, will the Minister of State indicate whether he is still committed to that objective and, more important, how realistic it is? It is an important goal for the country, because we will have green energy, it will be a jobs creator and it is vital for energy security. I accept that many of the measures have taken time to put in place and while I compliment some of our Green Party colleagues in government, I remind Senator Garvey that it was the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who established the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, which I am glad is located in Wexford. There is a deep Government commitment to developing offshore wind energy and we need to support it.

I will raise two issues. The first relates to the Powering Prosperity report the Minister of State mentioned. It is quite comprehensive. An element of it was about the development of regulatory sandboxes for offshore wind technology, which were due to be put in place by the second quarter of next year. Will the Minister of State update us on how that might develop, if not today at some other time? It was one of the clear recommendations of the Powering Prosperity report. Regulatory sandboxes can work effectively with new technology. We have seen it in some areas of fintech. In the area of offshore wind energy, it may allow us to trial new things without moving into a bigger space.

As Senator Dooley and the Minister of State mentioned, the second issue is the employment opportunities and how transformational this industry will be. There will be a huge range of jobs available and they will not only be in engineering; we will need maritime lawyers, marine biologists and people in communications. It is critical that we start to invest now in upskilling people to be able to avail of these opportunities and to encourage young people at second level to pursue career options in these fields.

I was particularly glad that Wind Energy Ireland recently hosted the first ever wind careers fair in Gorey, targeting schools along the east coast and in the south east, showing the potential of jobs in this sector. A wide range of employment opportunities will be available. One of the things I found heartening when I spoke to some of the students leaving the careers fair was the number of them who said they had thought it was all about engineering. It is about a hell of a lot more. We need to have a much more coherent strategy. I appreciate that the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has done some work on this, but we need to outline the number of jobs we envisage will be available in this sector and start to prepare now. There is no point starting in 2030 when the planning permission has been granted and a number of these projects are up and running, as then we will have serious skills shortages in the area. This is a significant motion and I hope it will get cross-party support.