Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022
424. Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister for Transport his plans to develop infrastructure at Rosslare Europort and the Port of Waterford in order to capitalise on the development of offshore wind off the south and east coasts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18773/22]
View answerA Policy Statement was published in December 2021 setting out the strategy for commercial ports to facilitate offshore renewable energy (ORE) activity in the seas around Ireland, confirming this Government's commitment to the provision of port facilities for ORE developments. A number of ports, both large ports for deployment and smaller ports for operations and maintenance activities, will be required to provide facilities for different activities at several locations around the country, with various timelines for the phases of fixed and floating ORE developments.
This will also maximise the economic benefits at both regional and national level in terms of job creation and new SME enterprises in areas such as engineering, fabrication, transport and logistics, and other technologies.
In addition to their important role in maritime transport, both Rosslare and Waterford ports see significant opportunities given their geographical location to service a range of windfarms off the south and east coasts, as acknowledged in the ORE Port Policy Statement.
Rosslare Europort and Irish Rail are progressing plans for the development of largescale facilities at the port for the development of ORE and anticipate that they will lodge a planning application in 2023. In this context, the port hosted an ORE stakeholder forum last Friday, 22 April 2022, in association with Waterford Port and the South East local and regional entities. The Department of Transport will continue to work with Rosslare Port as it progresses its plans for port infrastructure for serving the ORE sector while it also provides the necessary infrastructure to maintain RoRo freight activity at the port. Waterford Port has expressed support for Rosslare as a deployment base for ORE and is interested in the provision of operations and maintenance services facilities.
Both Rosslare Europort and Port of Waterford are ‘comprehensive’ ports within the TEN-T Regulation at a European level which means that they are eligible to apply for European Connecting Europe Facility funding for relevant/eligible projects and the CEF 2021-2023 funding criteria allows EU funding of port infrastructure for ORE.
The most recent call which closed on 19th January makes €4bn funding available EU wide for transport infrastructure projects. Similar calls are expected in 2022 and 2023. Due to the confidential nature of the process, individual applications cannot be commented on. However, I can confirm that four ports or private entities within ports that are eligible under TEN-T applied this year for funding for studies which will effectively allow them to prepare for lodgment of planning applications for their ORE port developments. Successful TEN-T applicants can obtain significant funding of up to 50% of eligible costs for studies and up 30% of infrastructure works costs. It is expected that a decision on the applications will be made in July this year.
The Department assisted, as appropriate, eligible applicants with the application process. It is important for the State that preparatory work is advanced and planning applications submitted so that the entities will be ready to go to construction, once they have more certainty from developers that have come through the ORESS auction.
