Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

No. Hold on. Look at what else has happened in the 35 years. That is in the context of an increase in population of 1.5 million, more than 1 million new homes and over 1 million more vehicles on the road. Those are dramatic statistics. We are growing as a population. We were relatively under-populated historically but our population is now growing dramatically. With 1.5 million more people, 1 million additional homes and 1 million additional vehicles, we have the lowest level of emissions in 35 years. We have decoupled economic growth from this issue, which is key.
I set up a clearing house in my Department to drive offshore wind energy development. We are not delaying it. We brought industry in to obtain a systemic assessment of the issues that could be a factor in developing offshore wind energy generation. The Deputy knows what has happened in the US, where there is a public policy against offshore wind. That is impacting on the economics. We are driving forward-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27