The regional disparities in this country are stark. I was in Cork for the last two weekends for family reasons. I saw that there have been remarkable advances in infrastructure during the Minister's time in office. They have particularly accelerated in recent years. It is in marked contrast to infrastructural advancements in the mid-west, the south east or any other part of Munster. There were advances in those areas in previous years, such as the partial ring road around Limerick when Willie O'Dea was in Cabinet and the road to Waterford when Martin Cullen was in Cabinet. It seems that if there is no Cabinet Minister, no advances are made.

I wonder if that parochialism is part of the reason our offshore wind strategy is so behind the laudable targets planned by the Government. A target is not a plan. Every couple of years the Government comes out with new targets but we do not have a plan to meet those targets. The Shannon area task force launched a report in Ardnacrusha on 8 July last. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Taoiseach were present. The Minister, Deputy Foley, was there to fly the Fianna Fáil flag. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, was there too. It became clear that wind energy, in particular floating offshore wind energy, has the capacity to really revolutionise the State, how we provide energy for our households and how we provide energy for the industries that want to invest in Ireland.

As is often the case with reports in Ireland, there has been little advance since then. Essentially, there are three key demands from the Shannon Estuary task force, one of which is around establishing a DMAP on the west coast. Surprise, surprise - the south coast is progressing in that regard and the west coast, which seems to have the greatest potential from what experts say, has had very little advancement even though Clare County Council has been prepared to offer significant expertise in that area as its contribution.

We need an ORESS offshore wind auction for floating wind. We do not know when that will happen. We need supports for ports. Again, Shannon Foynes Port will have to be developed if we are to harness wind energy capacity off the west coast. There has been very little advance on that. I would like to hear what the Government has to say to that.

There is a lot in the Deputy's question. I will try to answer the various elements of it. First, I am glad the Deputy is noticing progress in Cork. That is always important in terms of the scale of development there.

For developing political careers.

The mid-west has had a great year too. If we look at the performance of Limerick and the mid-west more generally, three of the biggest IDA Ireland announcements in the country this year happened just outside Limerick, involving Analog Devices, Eli Lilly and Verizon. Thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of euro of investment will be coming to the mid-west over the next few years. We are also seeing a lot of infrastructure delivery on the back of that such as the rail connection to Foynes Port and the Adare bypass progressing, albeit slower than some of us would like. In the past couple of weeks, €4 million has been allocated to Cork-Limerick motorway project. There is a lot happening in the mid-west but a lot more will happen in the next number of years.

The Shannon Estuary task force did a fantastic job. I have met the task force a number of times and have spoken to its chair on many occasions now. The big ask from the task force from an offshore wind energy perspective is to ensure Shannon Foynes Port is at the centre of country's plans to assemble and bring ashore offshore wind-generated power. That will happen; it is just a question of how quickly. We need to get a DMAP process under way for the west coast of Ireland. That is happening for the Irish Sea and for the south coast. It is a resourcing issue to make sure it happens on the west coast as well. I am determined to ensure the west coast is not left behind from a timeline perspective. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I are working on getting the resources in place to make that happen. Clare County Council has been very helpful in that regard.

We are also looking at a demonstrator floating wind project off the west coast and a centre of excellence. Yesterday, I got Cabinet approval for a hugely ambitious offshore wind industrial strategy which will run not just between now and 2030, but beyond. I assure the Deputy that Shannon Foynes Port and the Shannon Estuary is a big part of that vision, which is very real, by the way. ISIF is currently speaking to the Shannon Foynes Port Company about funding models to make what could be an investment of up to €500 million in the port over the next number of years. That obviously has to go through a planning process first. There is a lot happening here. In my view, the Shannon Estuary will be a cluster of green technology development, powered by clean power coming onshore from both fixed and floating platforms off the west coast that are generating power from wind.

The Minister's determination is laudable but I wonder what will triumph when it meets the inertia of the Department of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. There is little coming from the Government. It acknowledges what needs to be done but we all know what needs to be done. That is why we put a task force together. The reality is that it is not happening. Even the industrial wind strategy from the Minister's Department lacks specifics with regard to what will happen on the west coast, not to mention the other plans the Government is coming up with, which fail to prioritise wind energy. I heard the Taoiseach express similar determination when he described it as Ireland's "moonshot". That rhetoric is completely unmatched by the reality of what is not happening on the ground and what needs to happen on the ground. With respect, the ground in which we need to see development is the mid-west if we are to harness wind energy, and floating wind energy in particular, off the west coast. We need to do it now.

I hear the Deputy's frustration. I assure him there is no lack of ambition in this regard in my Department or that of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The Minister has done an extraordinary piece of work over the last number of years to make this prospect a reality. We have had our first round of auctions and 3 GW of draft supply contracts are in place. One of those projects is off the west coast - off the coast of Connemara - by the way. This is happening, but we cannot deliver a plan that aims to deliver 37 GW of offshore wind power generation in 25 years overnight. We need to change the planning and permitting systems and we need to have a marine plan. All of this is happening and is led by the State. This will take a number of years to take shape, in particular off the west coast. Shannon Foynes Port will be at the centre of a lot of that. We will see hundreds of millions of euro being invested on the back of it. It costs approximately €3 billion to put 1 GW of power generation capacity offshore and we are planning to do nearly 40 GW. That gives us an idea of the scale of investment we are likely to see over the next 25 years.