Ports Policy
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

I thank Deputy Cullinane for raising this very important issue. We both share an ambition with regard to offshore renewable energy, investment in job creation and collaboration with the South East Technological University. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister. I apologise that he is not here.
At the beginning, I will reaffirm that the Government is committed to facilitating the development of all commercial State ports, such as the Port of Waterford, to develop enabling port infrastructure for the offshore renewable energy industry. In 2021, the Government recognised the need for additional port infrastructure in a policy statement on the facilitation of offshore renewable energy, ORE, by commercial State ports in Ireland. This policy statement sets out that a number of ports will be required for deployment activity and a multiple will be required for operations and maintenance activities. The Government endorses a multiport approach to offshore renewable energy deployment on the basis that this will maximise the attractiveness of Ireland for offshore renewable energy industry stakeholders seeking to invest.
In September of this year, the Port of Waterford took a significant step in submitting its planning application for a development at Belview. Ministers and officials in the Department of Transport welcome the submission of the Port of Waterford’s planning application. If the port is successful in its planning application, it will enhance the port’s ability to start advance conversations with investors around the financing of the project.
The scale of the proposed development of infrastructure at Belview is significant. The project will consist of a 250 m quay wall extension with 2 ha of quayside space. The port will also provide new quayside operator support facilities with workshops and warehouses, berthing pontoons and two separate three-storey office and staff buildings for offshore renewable energy operators. This will allow the port to act in a supporting role for the construction of offshore wind farms, particularly through the storage of ancillary components for offshore wind, such as subsea cables. The marshalling and assembly of large-scale components, such as foundations, blades and tower sections, is expected to take place in other ports.
Along with the Port of Cork and Rosslare Europort, the Port of Waterford is strategically located to service the south coast designated maritime area plan approved by Government last year. The first auction for the south coast designated maritime area plan, SC-DMAP, for the Tonn Nua site took place in November. This auction successfully procured 900 MW of ORE capacity to be delivered by ESB and Ørsted, marking a significant milestone in Ireland's offshore renewable energy ambitions.
Subsequent auctions are due to take place in the coming years, providing a sufficient pipeline of projects for ports to service. This is expected to bolster the case for investment in ports infrastructure and enhance the viability of ORE port facilities such as those at the Port of Waterford.
The port is also ideally positioned to support phase 1 of offshore renewable energy development currently in the planning system. The national ORE DMAP, due by 2027, will further enhance the case for investment. The objective of the national DMAP is to designate sufficient maritime area to deliver a target of 20 GW of offshore renewable energy by 2040, inclusive of the 5 GW target for 2030.
Regarding investment in the Port of Waterford, the current national ports policy does not allow for direct Exchequer funding for ports. However, as Deputy Cullinane knows, this policy is currently under review. I am aware the Department plans to conduct a public consultation on a draft version of the revised national ports policy in quarter 4 of this year, subject to the completion of the relevant associated environmental assessment of the draft documentation. Once complete, it is hoped to bring the revised NPP to Government in the first quarter of next year. Again, I thank Deputy Cullinane for highlighting the importance of the Port of Waterford. As he rightly said, it is of strategic importance to the south east.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11