Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2023-03-01
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

I will take up the issue I raised earlier. The Taoiseach said he finds my position on offshore wind confusing. Yet, there is a thing called a "just transition". I know the Taoiseach does not believe in it, because his solution to everything is to let the private developers decide. That is what he has done with offshore wind. On the relevant projects, he gives them a free pass regardless of the impact on marine biology, fishers, etc., as if the two things have to be a trade-off. The truth is that there is a thing called "sustainable planning", where one plans out where it is suitable to protect the marine, where it is suitable to develop offshore wind and how we ensure the sustainability of existing industries, such as the fishers, etc. That is called sustainable planning. People argue for that and there is nothing contradictory about it. What they actually want is a just, sustainable transition to the climate future we need to have. Yet, what the Government is doing with the offshore wind at the expense of fishermen, marine biology and biodiversity is letting profit-driven developers dictate the development of the offshore marine. We are going to pay a price for that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-03-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-03-01