Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps being taken to ensure the enterprise sector can harness the potential of offshore wind and wave energy. [30882/24]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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Offshore wind and wave energy have the potential, if harnessed, to make the State an exporter of energy. There is potential to create thousands of jobs, especially in coastal communities. While the investment required is steep, it can create a whole new economic sector and guarantee the creation of new jobs. Our island is surrounded by natural resources. I am confident we have the co-operation of political parties, third level institutions and private companies in advancing this project. What steps has the Department of enterprise taken and what further steps will it take to support those looking to develop the potential of this economic sector?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist thábhachtach seo a ardú . Ireland's offshore wind industrial strategy, Powering Prosperity, was published by my Department in March this year. The strategy seeks to maximise the economic benefits associated with our target of producing 37 GW of offshore wind energy by 2050. It includes 40 targeted actions for implementation in 2024 and 2025 to support our offshore wind industry to reach that ambitious target.

We aim to build a strong and resilient offshore wind supply chain in Ireland, as well as exploring opportunities for Irish companies to play a major role in the development of offshore wind projects at home and abroad. We are exploring the opportunities to leverage Ireland’s existing strengths in research, development and innovation to support the sector to reach the cutting edge of future developments in offshore wind.

Powering Prosperity also focuses on pursuing strategic partnerships with like-minded countries in Europe and beyond, with a specific action to further build on international strategic partnerships with other countries to establish meaningful co-operation in supply chain development and knowledge transfer within the highly internationalised offshore wind industry. With this objective in mind, the Minister, Deputy Burke, led a recent engagement with Scotland to establish an annual joint offshore wind energy event. The focus of this year's event was to foster a collaborative relationship rather than a competitive one, working together to address common challenges with shared solutions. In the longer term, the strategy will consider routes to market for our abundant clean renewable energy, including carrying out a sectoral assessment of the concept of green energy industrial parks. Actions also focus on exploring regional development opportunities in coastal areas close to where renewable energy will come onshore. The recent Scottish event involved a round-table discussion on research, development and innovation and skills, both here in Dublin and in Cork, alongside Scotland’s Minister for Climate Action, Gillian Martin. It was a productive discussion with representatives of the offshore wind industry in both countries that examined shared opportunities and challenges.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. Regarding offshore energy, many companies and people are making great strides already in this field. I commend Shannon-Foynes Port for the work it has done to date and for its Vision 2041 strategy that laid out in detail many of the challenges and potential available from offshore energy, especially in the mid-west region. The port is in proximity to the offshore wind resources. It has the deep-water port that is needed and the necessary development land nearby. It is well-suited, with the necessary supports, to lead the way in this potentially enormously beneficial economic sector. One of the scenarios outlined was an expectation that by 2050 the area could create 30 GW of floating offshore wind energy, potentially attracting direct and indirect investment of up to €90 billion, which is a massive opportunity for Ireland. In March 2023 the enterprise, trade and employment committee, which I chair, issued a report on renewable energy. The report was issued following a visit to Belfast Harbour to see its D1 facility and following engagement with numerous stakeholders. As the Minister of State is probably well aware, Belfast Harbour is the only port on the island of Ireland that currently has the capacity to provide the construction and marshalling services needed for offshore wind energy. He might address that.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge his work, the work of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment and its report on this space in 2023. We are focused on this. Our Department is working through our regional enterprise committees right across the country to identify the opportunities, and especially looking at ports to identify the infrastructure we need. It is vital we are ready and that we have that infrastructure in place. On the Shannon Estuary economic task force, we are looking at all the recommendations in that report. We published an implementation update at the end of June that showed the majority of recommended actions have been or will be implemented. We are very focused on looking at any opportunity. As well as infrastructure, we want to ensure we have the skills in place to back that up and to ensure the opportunities that will come with that infrastructure can be made available to people in the regions as well, and that we have that skills base available.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. As I have said before, the development of offshore wind energy can be our generation's Ardnacrusha moment. We either act now or fall behind our competitors, which are basically Scotland, Germany and other countries. We can harness this energy and export the excess Ireland does not need or we can import it from abroad. That is the choice we are facing. It is as simple as that. We can either harness the energy from wind or purchase it from abroad. Does the Minister of State share my concern that we are not advanced enough, do not have the planning in our ports and do not have any place for marshalling? As I said, Belfast is the only place that can do the marshalling of the product that is needed. We are way behind. The only port I know that has planning permission is Cork Harbour and that is running out. It could potentially take years to develop a planning process in other ports. The committee I chair, which includes Deputy O'Reilly and others, attended Cork Harbour recently. Concerns were expressed to us that we are way behind, are missing the opportunity and do not have the planning, infrastructure and other stuff in place. Will the Minister of State outline exactly what the Government is going to do to address those challenges?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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We are very well progressed. We are putting the foundation stones in place. We will ensure that when the technology is available to us to maximise the offshore advantages, especially off our Atlantic coast, we will be in a position to maximise it. Our Department is investing considerably in the supply chains issue. We had an excellent event with the Scottish Government recently and our agreement is we will share with it, co-operate with it and look to its lessons. Scotland is equally looking to what we have achieved here with onshore wind. We have shown huge advances in that area. We will work collaboratively with them on onshore and offshore. I am very confident we will be able to harness this energy in a planned way. The establishment of MARA as the offshore planning agency is part of putting all the building blocks in place, putting the infrastructure in place and being focused on the skills and supply chains as well as the opportunities within those chains, especially for smaller companies based in the regions.