104. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the position regarding initiatives within his Department that seek to prioritise the fast tracking of offshore wind energy infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73598/25]

Sentiment score: 0.17

My question is about the provision of offshore wind energy and initiatives his Department might have put in place to fast-track that, particularly in the context of dealing with the frustrations of people who recognise that, as I understand it, there is currently no operating offshore wind capacity in Ireland.

Sentiment score: -0.48

I do recognise that some progress has been made but I know from speaking to people around the country that there is a real frustration at the lack of speed of decision-making. If a decision is made today to start a process to establish a wind farm offshore, whether that is implanted into the seabed or floating, we are many years away from the realisation of that plan. Honestly, people do not understand why that should be the case. It should not take that long. I recognise what the Government has put forward in terms of an infrastructure plan that it is going to shorten those times but in terms of what the Minister's Department is doing, what specifically are we doing to make sure that these things can happen faster? In particular, the Minister State said there have been no bidders. Has the Department examined why that is the case and identified why it is that the many international companies that are operating in this field feel it is not worth their while bidding for projects off the coast of Ireland? If it does not have bidders, what are we doing about that? Is there some other State instrument that can step in to fill that place or is there something we need to change in the terms of that auction?

Sentiment score: -0.03

I welcome the fact the Minister is reiterating the State's commitment to offshore because as an offshore island, essentially, this has huge potential for us. I think of the projects even in my own constituency or off the coast of my constituency in the case of the Codling Wind Park and Dublin Array projects. They are hugely important projects but the level of investment from RWE or the contracting companies there is enormous before they ever get off the ground. That has to be a disincentive in real terms for companies that actually want to invest in our infrastructure, provide us with clean energy and help us to get to a point where we are actually a net energy exporter. That is really important. I appreciate what the Minister said but I ask him to redouble his efforts in terms of specifically addressing the delays issues. I recognise what the plan is in terms of judicial reviews and establishing a local standard for judicial reviews; a person cannot be living in County Donegal and object to one off Rosses Point or something like that. That is really important. Let us make it easy for people to do it, and the easiest way to do it is to make it quicker.

Sentiment score: 0.40