Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. While Sinn Féin will vote in favour of this motion, concerns remain regarding how long it has taken to deliver. If this is the pace the Government is going with, we will never meet our 2030 targets, let alone achieve energy independence on this island. After 15 long months, we finally have a plan for offshore wind on the south coast. Although the delay was unacceptable In delivering the south coast DMAP, we recognise the important economic opportunity this represents - €3 billion to the counties of Waterford, Cork and Wexford over the lifetime of the offshore wind projects and, potentially, 32,000 jobs. We know that offshore renewable energy represents a momentous opportunity for this island. We cannot afford to wait another 15 months for the next DMAP. How long will Shannon Foynes Port wait for a DMAP? We met the management of that port some months back and I could not begin to describe the levels of frustration it had with this Government and its slow pace of progress.

Ireland sits on the biggest natural offshore wind resource in Europe, with some 640 GW of untapped energy potential. Despite other countries having forged ahead, this potential remains largely untapped. While other EU countries were out developing offshore wind energy, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael prevaricated and dragged their feet. Decades of bad planning, mismanagement and inaction have resulted in so much lost opportunity. We are finally starting to make progress. This south coast DMAP is an important part of that. However, serious issues remain that pose risks to the development of offshore wind here such as, for example, in planning, the grid and offshore renewable electricity support scheme auctions. It is largely accepted that Ireland will miss our 2030 targets in offshore renewable energy.

The south coast designated marine area plan is Ireland's first spatial plan for offshore renewable energy generation. It identifies four maritime areas off the south coast in offshore renewable energy proposed to take place over the next decade. The four maritime areas are located off the Waterford, Wexford and Cork coasts. The proposed development of offshore renewable energy presents significant opportunities for regional economic development. According to independent analysis, there is potential for almost €3 billion to the counties of Waterford, Cork and Wexford over the lifetime of the offshore wind projects. The analysis estimated that the implementation of the DMAP could result in the creation of more than 32,000 direct full-time annual jobs in the south coast region. Ireland has a target of 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 37 GW of offshore wind by 2050. A recent offshore renewable energy skills assessment report produced for Green Tech Skillnet and Wind Energy Ireland found that meeting our target of 37 GW of offshore wind energy by 2050 could be worth €38 billion to the Irish economy. It will also open up tens of thousands of new jobs.

However, in order to seize this opportunity, some serious issues must be addressed. The first is Ireland's broken planning system. It is slow, adversarial and racked full of uncertainty. These problems are so acute that many renewable energy projects do not make it off the ground. Renewables projects are stuck in at the planning system for an average of 92 weeks. At a certain point last year, no new projects had been approved for 14 months. At the end of June, 30 projects totalling more than 1.7 GW were in front of An Bord Pleanála awaiting a decision on wind developments. The second issue is grid constraints as a barrier to Ireland's green energy revolution. Ireland's electricity grid is not fit for purpose. It barely manages to cope with its current load and is certainly not fit to handle the ambition of creating an energy secure and independent Ireland. Since 2016, constraint levels in the north west, for example, have risen from 2.3% to 11.4%. In the west, it has risen from 0.3% to 8.8%, while in the North we see the highest levels of constraints, going from 2.3% in 2016 to 14.6% in 2023. This is all lost energy. It could have been used to cook meals, run milking parlours, charge cars or even just to boil the kettle. Instead, these wind farms had to stop generating or reduce generation and that electricity came from gas instead. The more constraints on our grid increase, the more carbon emissions we produce and the higher our bills because of the gas generation brought on to replace the constrained wind farms. This is only set to get worse as we attempt to get more renewables on the system.

The third issue is Ireland's fledgling port infrastructure. Ireland's port infrastructure represents yet another monumental challenge when it comes to hitting our 2030 offshore targets. As it stands, there is only one port on this island, Belfast Port, with the capacity to deliver offshore renewable energy infrastructure. However, over the past two years it has been completely taken over by projects in Britain. No other port is ready for offshore wind in Ireland, placing a large question mark over just how we will deliver on our targets. The next issue is unpredictable and expensive auctions for renewable energy. The renewable energy support scheme is an auction-based process which invites renewable energy projects to compete against each other to win contracts to provide electricity at a guaranteed price. There have been four onshore options to date and just one for offshore wind. However, these auctions have been plagued with problems and are largely regarded as yet another barrier to developing renewable energy here. Auctions are not happening in the timelines set out by the Government nor do they deliver the amount of power required to meet our 2030 targets. The prices they set are very high compared with other European countries, meaning that consumer bills will remain high. As these prices are index linked, they are set to rise in the future. As recently as July 2023, the Government aimed to hold ORESS 2.1 before the end of 2023 with final results in early 2024. It now seems likely the auction will not be held until the middle of 2025 with results taking a further few months. Planning applications will not be submitted until late 2026.

Sinn Féin has a suite of measures to accelerate the development of offshore wind. Some of our priorities include addressing Ireland's fledgling grid capacity and enabling Ireland's ports for the development of offshore wind. Our alternative budget this year proposed the establishment of a new renewable energy investment fund. It is shocking that the Government had nothing in last week's budget for ports or the grid. In planning, we proposed a significant uptick in resourcing of State bodies such as An Bord Pleanála and the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority. We would also review the auction timelines with a view to speeding them up. We welcome and support this motion but frankly the pace is far too slow. We are light years behind other parts of Europe. At the end of this Government's lifetime, it is not good enough.