The Government will have to ringfence funding for the expansion of Ireland’s ports, an Oireachtas committee heard on Tuesday, with just one port on the island capable of facilitating the construction of floating wind projects.
While Belfast Harbour meets the spatial requirements to act as a construction hub for offshore projects, not a single port in the Republic is currently equipped to do so, Justin Moran, director of external affairs at Wind Energy Ireland (WEI), told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs.
Mr Moran said the industry body has concerns about the availability of Belfast as a hub for the construction of floating wind schemes.
He said the wind industry could build for Irish offshore projects using Cherbourg or ports in Wales as construction hubs. “We don’t want to do that,” Mr Moran said. “We want to build them from Irish ports.
“We shouldn’t act as if Belfast will simply be available, waiting for us,” Mr Moran told TDs and senators. “Belfast has contracts to service British wind farms on their side of the Irish Sea, so having a port available to construct and develop a wind farm [in the Republic] is critical.
While there had been some progress in the Republic, the development of port infrastructure requires substantial Government investment, Mr Moran said.
He said a new national port strategy, which will be put out for public consultation in the autumn, must facilitate “direct investment in our ports”.
Mr Moran also said that the State could do more to allay the concerns of Ireland’s fishing industry about the development of offshore wind and its impact on fisheries.
“Fishermen tell us they firmly believe that if wind farms are built, the Government or some other State agency will prevent fishing,” he said. “It will be very helpful and provide reassurance to the seafood industry, if the committee could give courage to the Government to give a commitment on that matter and to ensure there is no ban on fishing near all offshore wind sites.”
Capt Robert McCabe, chairman of the Government’s Seafood/Offshore Renewable Energy Working Group, said stakeholders are keenly awaiting An Coimisiún Pleanála’s first decisions on applications for offshore projects under the new maritime planning system instituted in 2021.
“The conditions [attached to those planning decisions] would speak to a lot of the issues that we raise,” he said.
