Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. To clarify a point by the previous speaker, in budget 2025 the Government specifically addressed investment in the grid and in infrastructure and specifically allocated money from the sale of AIB. That was very much addressed in the budget.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. It is welcome to have an opportunity to discuss offshore wind and its potential. It will come as no surprise that I support the motion. I am pleased to see the DMAP for the south coast but that is with a tinge of frustration because we do not yet have a DMAP for the west coast. I express that frustration in the Chamber today. Fixed-bottom floating wind is of course easier to deliver but will not deliver the energy needs Ireland will have now or in the future. It will not do everything we need in addressing our 2030 or 2050 targets. It is deeply frustrating as somebody from Mayo who knows the wind resource off the west coast - the second best wind corridor in the world - that we have not even started to map the west coast. I cannot get a clear answer as to why we cannot begin the preparatory work and DMAP process. I make a call that we accelerate the DMAP process and produce DMAPs for the entire coast. The west coast is where it is at. I am talking about Clare, up into Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. That is where Ireland's best wind resource is. This is Ireland's gold if only somebody in the Department and the Minister would pull the starting trigger and let us get started. With the zoning of the south coast, I must ask specifically why have we not moved to map the west coast? Will the Minister of State please give a clear answer? The Minister repeatedly said the technology is not available yet or we cannot deploy turbines off the west coast yet. I disagree but that is beside the point. We are not even talking about deploying turbines today, tomorrow or even in the next two to three years because we are not ready. Even if the technology was available right now, we are not ready to put them in because we have not started the planning process.To know that resource is there and nobody even wants to move on it is hugely frustrating. I want to challenge the notion that the technology is not there. Why then is the ESB, a semi-State body, investing in a floating offshore project in Scotland today? Why did Equinor partner with the ESB for a project off the west coast and then pull out because of the regulatory uncertainty? Equinor is a world leader in floating offshore technology so it is not me saying it. Experts working in that field are saying it and they want it to move. The importance of the DMAP for the west coast is that it tells developers and investors that we are open for business and this is where they can invest. I am not sure why we are not moving on it.

The Minister of State mentioned the supply chain development in this space, which is a really important point. The opportunity for the west coast, such as where I live in Mayo, and in our most disadvantaged region of the west and north west, is there if we are an early adopter and if we move early. Even if we move today, we are not going to be the first out because France, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the Nordic countries are already doing it while we are still waiting to get started. If we get moving, however, we can develop the skills base, the supply chains, the infrastructure and the technology, not just to deploy the offshore floating turbines but everything that goes with that, here. That is the opportunity for the west coast.

We can have an energy park in Mayo. We have the Corrib gas field that will eventually need a second lease of life. It is ideal for a hydrogen or green energy plant on the west coast. Yes, we need to improve our infrastructure and the EirGrid. I was pleased to see an announcement of significant money set aside for that purpose but the money needs to go to the west coast because that is where it is needed.

We need to improve our ports and our infrastructure but Foynes, as a deep water port, is ideally placed to deal with floating offshore wind projects and get those turbines onto the west coast. The infrastructure is there. I know the Minister, Deputy Ryan, was there when they Shannon Estuary task force published its report some two years ago and he said himself, "Let us build it now." We have not even started mapping or planning it. It is again deeply frustrating.

My vision for Mayo and the west coast is that we will become a world leader in floating offshore wind. Not only do we fuel industry, agriculture and our homes, we have more than ten times Ireland's energy needs sitting off the west coast if only we would harness it. We can then move to actually exporting to Europe and assist Europe in that stated ambition to have better energy security and more a more sustainable supply of green energy. We can make sure we never have a situation when the Russians turn off the tap, we are worried about keeping the lights on. That happened two years ago. We saw the impact on every house in this country when bills went through the roof and this Government stepped in to ease the burden and ensure households were able to, for the most part, meet those bills. Energy security and affordable energy is really important.

We had a discussion on the Order of Business on data centres. I acknowledge the Minister of State's party has a particular view on data centres but data centres are part of life now because we live online. We do everything online from banking to social protection and that is how we run the country. We need somewhere to the store that data because everyone is looking at their phones and their tablets. Amazon is investing €30 billion in data centres and Ireland is not included because of its hostility to data centres. The real crux of the issue is energy supply. We need a source of green, sustainable energy. Heretofore, Ireland's competitive advantage was that we had a corporate tax rate that was attractive as well as being part of the European Union and having an educated and skilled workforce. What will be our unique selling point, USP, in the decades ahead to continue to attract foreign direct investment and maintain the FDI we have? What these companies want is green, sustainable energy. If Ireland is not providing it, somewhere else will and that is where they will go to invest, develop new industries and set up new companies. I want to see another Baxter coming to Castlebar, another Hollister coming to Ballina and another AbbVie setting up in Westport because we have the industrial base there. We have the energy sitting off the west coast. Why are we not mapping the west coast? What is the hold-up?