Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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127. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the five ports outlined in the recent announcement of European Investment Bank advisory co-operation agreement to assess capacity, demand and financing strategies required for the development of offshore renewable energy port infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37081/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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In March of this year my Department signed an advisory agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The assignment is to assess capacity, demand and financing strategies required for the development of offshore renewable energy (ORE) port infrastructure, which infrastructure is crucial for the construction, and long-term operation and maintenance of offshore wind projects in Irish waters.

Ireland aims to achieve 80% of its electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030, with 5 gigawatts (GW) attributable to offshore wind, and this advisory assignment represents a crucial step towards facilitating these targets. Currently no Irish ports have developed the appropriate port infrastructure to facilitate the construction of the forthcoming ORE projects. The Government is therefore cognisant of the importance of the ports to enable the delivery of its climate targets, through the facilitation of the development, construction and long-term operation of offshore wind projects.

With regard to the Advisory work my Department will be the ultimate beneficiary of a number of the outputs of the assignment. As part of this work the EIB will carry out individual case studies on five ports who will be recipients of bi-lateral project-level analysis. The cases study ports are representative of a range of characteristics across scale, operations, target market, ownership structure and geographic location. The case studies will also consider ports which will facilitate fixed-base turbine ORE projects and ORE ports which will facilitate floating-base turbine ORE projects.

The selection of the five ports for inclusion in the Advisory work was entirely the responsibility of the EIB, with no Department input. Due to commercial sensitivities, the identity of these five individual ports will not be publicised by my Department or the EIB. However, as per the advisory agreement, the Department will receive an overarching report detailing key takeaways from the bilateral analyses, without identifying information about each of the ports.

The advisory assignment will be critical in developing the evidence base for my Department with regard to potential demand and capacity of the ORE market and the financial viability of ORE port projects.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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128. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if the port of Killybegs in Donegal is one of the five ports around the country that are expected to play a role in the deployment of offshore renewable energy projects under the advisory initiative recently announced between his Department and the European Investment Bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37084/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Firstly, I wish to inform the Deputy that Killybegs Harbour is a fisheries harbour under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and my Department has no role in relation to its operation, administration or governance.

As the Deputy is aware, in March of this year my Department signed an advisory agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The assignment is to assess capacity, demand and financing strategies required for the development of offshore renewable energy (ORE) port infrastructure, which infrastructure is crucial for the construction, and long-term operation and maintenance of offshore wind projects in Irish waters.

Ireland aims to achieve 80% of its electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030, with 5 gigawatts (GW) attributable to offshore wind, and this advisory assignment represents a crucial step towards facilitating these targets. Currently no Irish ports have developed the appropriate port infrastructure to facilitate the construction of the forthcoming ORE projects. The Government is therefore cognisant of the importance of the ports to enable the delivery of its climate targets, through the facilitation of the development, construction and long-term operation of offshore wind projects.

With regard to the Advisory work my Department will be the ultimate beneficiary of a number of the outputs of the assignment. As part of this work the EIB will carry out individual case studies on five ports which will be recipients of bi-lateral project-level analysis. The case-study ports are representative of a range of characteristics across scale, operations, target market, ownership structure and geographic location. The case studies will also consider ports which will facilitate fixed-base turbine ORE projects and ORE ports which will facilitate floating-base turbine ORE projects.

The selection of the five ports for inclusion in the Advisory work was entirely the responsibility of the EIB, with no Department input. Due to commercial sensitivities, the identity of these five individual ports will not be publicised by my Department or the EIB. However, as per the advisory agreement, the Department will receive an overarching report detailing key takeaways from the bilateral analyses, without identifying information about each of the ports.

The advisory assignment will be critical in developing the evidence base for my Department with regard to potential demand and capacity of the ORE market and the financial viability of ORE port projects.