I also acknowledge the presence of the Canadian ambassador, H. E. Mr. King. On a personal level, I thank the Prime Minister of his country for the leadership he has shown at Davos and elsewhere in standing up to buffoonery and a lack of common sense internationally. In particular, I offer my condolences to his country, especially the families of those killed and injured at Tumbler Ridge.

The specific matter I want to raise is hydrogen, but I want to talk about the broader picture first. From listening to a lot of the debates here, I can see the amount of hot air generated. If we put a little turbine at the top of the House, we would be able to light up all of Dublin sometimes. I am a firm believer in investment in renewable energy. We are way behind where we could be. We have the potential to create 37 GW of offshore wind by 2050 and possibly another 15 GW of onshore wind and solar. That is before we even look at areas such as tidal, which the east coast and the Shannon Estuary have an abundance of, and wave energy. We are sadly lacking in that regard. As a result of grid challenges and the fact we cannot store the energy produced by renewables at their peak, we are wasting a lot of energy. Many hard-pressed consumers in my constituency are struggling to pay their bills. It is a huge waste to see all that renewable energy being produced but not being used and dissipating.

The answer in this regard is the creation and storage of green hydrogen. In that context, we have a hydrogen strategy that was initiated in 2023 and a hydrogen plan containing 21 key recommendations that was brought forward in 2025. In the context of reaching our 2030 targets, we are already falling behind. I will digress by saying that we also need battery storage, but hydrogen is going to be key. Off the Dublin coast, on the Kish Bank, there are salt caverns and off the coast of the constituency the Taoiseach represents are depleted gas fields. There is huge potential to store green hydrogen created from renewables with the lowest possible loss from the initial energy generated. We could store green hydrogen for use by industry and aviation. We could be net exporters of hydrogen as well as other forms of energy, such as electricity, very quickly, if we put in the necessary infrastructure right now and ramp up.

I would like a commitment on how soon we can get a hydrogen network operator for Ireland appointed and on getting the pre-planning for the appointment of a safety and economic regulator for hydrogen here done.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am absolutely at one with him in terms of a commitment to investment in renewable energy. Ireland put a lot of eggs in that basket over the past decade and is continuing to do so. In 2023, Ireland was ranked second in the world in onshore wind energy generation. I am not too sure that is appreciated even in Ireland. We will continue to build on that. The programme for Government includes a commitment to 9 GW of onshore wind, 8 GW of solar energy and 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030. These are very challenging targets.

On the question of hydrogen, some progress has been made, although there is a degree of scepticism as to the timeline for the realisation of the proposals around that. I will return to that. I established a clearing house upon this Government entering office to bring the private sector in to talk to Departments and to hear the perspective of regulators in order that we could hear the perspective of those involved in the wind industry. The purpose of this was to try to accelerate matters and to look, generically, at what barriers there are and the issues holding us back in the generation of offshore wind in particular. I passionately believe we need to get offshore wind farms established - certainly, at least one or two - by 2030 or 2031. That is absolutely essential in order that we show people a clear and tangible pathway as to the journey we are on.

We have made great progress on onshore but increasingly in the House and in public debate, we have mixed views about this. When I use the word "we", I mean society. Already, people want guidelines to restrict solar. Solar is in its infancy, but it is moving very fast. Tremendous progress is being made with solar. There have been global issues with offshore, although I am confident that we can iron out the challenges the wind industry faces in developing offshore platforms.

The grid is vital, as the Deputy said. Potentially, up to €18 billion has been agreed, although it could be €14 billion. We have given equity of €3.5 billion to EirGrid to leverage that funding to substantially increase the capacity of the grid to deal with this.

More work needs to be done on the research side in respect of hydrogen. The Deputy is correct that caverns exist that have potential when it comes to storage. On the issue of tidal, I have been to Wales where I saw fairly experimental - or, certainly, embryonic - projects in place to harness tidal energy. There has been some research in Ringaskiddy in respect of that. If I am honest, however, it seems we are some years off that and off the use of hydrogen as well.

It is about using this time to try to keep the country on track in relation to the 2025 national hydrogen implementation plan and its 21 key objectives. For example, we are trying to get the potential routes to market for up to 2 GW of hydrogen production from offshore wind by 2030. I acknowledge the challenges in ramping up our offshore wind, but we already have excess capacity at peak times that cannot be used. If this were used, it could push energy prices down and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels further in terms of both the wider climate change debate and our energy security in a very dangerous world. We need to ramp up whatever we can. We could start at least one hydrogen hub based on existing renewable energy production. That is why we need to get the hydrogen innovation fund in place by next year as planned. We need to get the hydrogen network operator appointed. Will the Taoiseach commit to these small steps in order that we can keep on track?

I thank the Deputy for his commitment and interest in this. Certainly, I will talk to the Minister and the Cabinet subcommittee dealing with this issue in terms of the hydrogen innovation fund, the network co-ordinator and the establishment of a hydrogen hub. There is a lot of potential here. We should be in earlier, and we should increase our research capacity in that field.

On the topic of energy, I welcome, on behalf of Deputy Ken O'Flynn, the group of retired CIÉ workers who are in the Gallery. They are most welcome.