Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 November 2023
14. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the progress he has made with Enterprise Ireland, EI, on stimulating the establishment of indigenous businesses in the renewable energy supply chain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51522/23]
View answerWe have ambitious plans to generate just short of 30 GW of renewable electricity off our coast, with an estimated €80 billion capital expenditure investment. What are the Government's plans to develop the necessary onshore and offshore infrastructure, including enterprise capacity to support Ireland's energy revolution?
It is 37 GW-----
I am losing track of it, even me.
-----by 2050 and it will be well over €100 billion of capital investment. The Deputy is correct that if it were 30 GW it would be about €80 billion. It costs about €3 billion per gigawatt to develop offshore. It depends on whether it is fixed or floating but that is the rough guidance figure. It is enormous expenditure and it has the potential to employ tens of thousands of people around the Irish coastline, in parts of the country that perhaps do not have this kind of industry and employment opportunity at the moment because of isolation in geographic location and so on.
The energy sector is transforming rapidly, as the Deputy suggests. Meeting our national climate targets will require a significant increase in the development rates of renewable energy, and there are opportunities for Irish industry to capitalise on this. With the support of my Department, Enterprise Ireland's sustainability department is examining emerging areas of opportunity and how best to develop Ireland's renewable energy sector as a basis for competitive advantage. Enterprise Ireland has been working on developing Irish SME capability in the offshore wind sector since 2018, and has developed an offshore wind supply chain cluster, the Gael Offshore Network. This cluster has achieved substantial growth over the past five years, with numbers increasing from approximately 40 companies in 2019 to over 90 companies today. These companies provide a range of products, services and skill sets to the offshore wind industry sector.
This work aligns with the framework for enterprise policy for the period to 2030, as outlined in the White Paper on enterprise. Actions aimed at developing indigenous supply chain capacity will be an integral part of these initiatives. The scale of Ireland's offshore wind potential offers a once in a century industrial development opportunity. My Department is leading on the development of a national industrial strategy for offshore wind, with significant involvement from El and IDA Ireland, which are contributing to industry knowledge and expertise. This strategy will aim to maximise the gain for Ireland from the current and future growth of the industry that is expected over the next 25 to 27 years. We will publish that strategy towards the end of March, just after St. Patrick's Day.
I am glad to hear that. Considering the huge job creation potential and the economic benefits of the offshore wind sector, and in the context of what the Minister has just said to me, how is Enterprise Ireland adjusting its focus to balance between aiding SMEs and exporting, and tapping into the domestic renewable energy potential? The difficulty for Enterprise Ireland is that up to now it has been primarily focused on export-driven growth. What strategies are being considered to shift attention towards existing indigenous potential, rather than solely looking at the export or high-potential start-ups? How does the Government plan to support these existing indigenous enterprises in scaling up to meet the demands of the emerging renewable sector here? What is the timeline for that?
There are a lot of questions there. Enterprise Ireland has a stable of about 4,500 companies. The Deputy is right that most of them are focused on export markets and global growth, and that is Enterprise Ireland's remit. We have seen and are seeing Enterprise Ireland develop capacity to support and service this sector. We have a unit within Enterprise Ireland that is focused on this group of about 90 companies that are developing new technologies in supply chain considerations for the scale of investment we referred to at the start of this question. It will be well over €100 billion over the next 25 to 30 years. Many of those companies, while they have the potential to service offshore wind growth in Ireland, will also be doing it outside of Ireland. That is the nature of how Enterprise Ireland works. It builds capacity, skills and know-how in order that technologies that can be applied at home are also transferable abroad.
If you look at some of the dynamic Enterprise Ireland companies that are looking at seabed surveys to choose suitable locations for fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, for example, companies in that space are relevant to what we need to do here but they are also operating off the UK, in other parts of Europe and in other parts of the world. That is the way we should think. Irish companies should think globally at an early stage and if they can apply that technology to a significant growth sector in Ireland, that is great, but they should also be able to transfer that knowledge to other parts of the world because offshore wind is a global industry that is growing and expanding at pace. Ireland should see itself as a competitive part of that journey. The UK, for example, has ambitious offshore wind targets as well and we should see that as almost being one marketplace. We should do that whether it is in how we manage: the energy that comes on shore; the systems to store energy; seabed surveys; seabird surveys; wave height; or tidal speeds. All of these things can and should apply in Ireland but they should apply internationally as well as a potential export product.
What measures are being implemented to ensure that job creation is maximised in communities across the western seaboard and the western half of the island? How will the programmes the Minister has spoken about address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the renewable energy sector? How is the cross-Government co-ordination going? This is one of the big concerns I have. I know the Minister will come back to me officially and tell me everything is hunky-dory but I have been on the other side of the table and I know how challenging it is to engage across various Departments. I know how frustrating it has been in getting the planning process up and running within this country, where we have had five Government Departments involved in it. My concern is that, while the Minister in isolation is committed to this and is driving this particular sector forward, this needs to be a co-ordinated strategy across Government if it is going to deliver its full potential. I have concerns with that.
I would say officially that everything is hunky-dory between the different Departments. In this case the relationships are good. There are a number of different Departments, including the Department of housing and planning, which has effectively designed and produced the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, and An Bord Pleanála, which will soon be a planning commission, has played a role in making decisions offshore. There is a role for the Department of Transport, which needs to get port infrastructure in place quickly. The potential funding of some of that has to involve public expenditure and potentially the Department Finance. There are climate targets that need to be met, driven by the Department of climate.
My Department will be looking at the opportunities from an enterprise perspective, as well as the challenges of building this infrastructure and the employment potential. The Department of research and third-level education is looking at the skill sets. The list goes on and on. This is about reorienting the Irish economy around a different type of energy which, in my view, has enormous opportunity attached to it for the west of Ireland, in particular. This is particularly true post 2030 but there is also some opportunity before 2030, which is why the Shannon Estuary task force has contributed significantly to that and to other aspirations on the west coast. There is, therefore, much opportunity there and we are working hard to make sure we co-ordinate it all.
