Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way he intends to address the increasing concerns that Ireland will not reach the 2030 target for renewables and the key barriers to delivery such as grid capacity and delays in planning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50250/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Under the Climate Action Plan Update 23, Ireland has set a target of 80% of electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030 and to reach 22 GW of installed renewable electricity generation capacity by 2030, made up of 9 GW of onshore wind, 8 GW of solar and at least 5 GW of offshore wind.

This will require unprecedented levels of investment in renewable electricity generation development and in the infrastructure required to expand and strengthen our electricity grid.

The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is one of the main Government policies to deliver this renewable generation capacity. Four auctions, both onshore and offshore, have been undertaken to date.

The recent auction result underpins the need for a much stronger pipeline of onshore wind and solar projects coming through the grid connection and permitting processes. It also highlights the urgent and critical need for greater alignment between local development plans and renewable energy targets to support investment in and delivery of renewable energy projects.

An Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce has been established to identify, coordinate, and prioritise the required policies to achieve the onshore renewable electricity targets, and to ensure that barriers to the implementation of such policies are removed or minimised to the greatest extent possible.

To ensure a consistent approach across Government with respect to offshore wind roll-out, the inter-Departmental, inter-agency Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce was established in April 2022. This Taskforce was formed in order to accelerate delivery and capture the wider and longer-term economic opportunities associated with the development of offshore wind in Ireland.