Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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34. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the establishment of a cross-Government taskforce on offshore wind and hydrogen; the persons or bodies that will be included on this taskforce; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13395/22]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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35. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the establishment of a cross-Government taskforce on offshore wind and hydrogen; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13396/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 34 and 35 together. I propose to take Question Nos  34 and 35 together.

Government, including officials from my Department, are engaged in a number of critical workstreams that will be required to facilitate realisation of the 5 GW of installed offshore wind by 2030 objective set out in the Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan 2021. These workstreams include but are not limited to:

- An assessment of the many responses received following completion of a public consultation on the draft terms and conditions for the first offshore wind auction that will launch by the end of this year. Government approval will be sought on the final terms and conditions later this year. 

-  A public consultation on the process for Phase Two projects to participate in subsequent offshore wind auctions which will be necessary to meet Government’s 5GW target by the end of this decade concludes this week. Following consideration of responses received, a decision will issue on the Phase Two process later this year.

- The recent conclusion of a public consultation on the Maritime Area Consent (MAC) assessment regime for projects seeking to participate in the first offshore wind auction. Taking on board feedback received at this Consultation, the final MAC processes and Guidance will be published in coming weeks.

In addition to the above, a cross-Departmental Offshore Renewable Energy Team has been established to capture wider and longer term economic and business opportunities associated with the development of offshore renewables in Ireland. This will include the identification of supporting infrastructure development and supply chain opportunities as Ireland’s offshore wind industry is developed. This team is comprised of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Transport, and the Department of Enterprise.

The role of hydrogen and the actions needed for its development were considered as part of the development of the Climate Action Plan 2021, which identifies green hydrogen produced from renewables as having the potential to support decarbonisation across several sectors. The plan includes a suite of actions relating to green hydrogen across the electricity, enterprise and transport chapters. The Climate Action Plan will be updated on an annual basis and I expect that a strategy focussing on the development of green hydrogen will be included in the Climate Action Plan 2022.