He said: "The construction of the €600 million interconnector is absolutely vital physical infrastructure to facilitate the exploitation of our indigenous wind resource to its full potential. Considering our abundance of on shore and off shore wind, and the fact that Ireland has the highest wind speeds in Europe, the possibility of us becoming a significant renewable energy producer is tremendous.
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"There is considerable demand for energy from the British and European markets. The European Union is looking beyond the 2020 energy and climate change targets, towards 2030. EU Commission analysis to date points to significant ramping up of renewables from the point of view of competitiveness and security of supply.
"One of our biggest challenges is that our own market is small without sufficient demand and wind can never be the sole solution to our energy requirements. A balance of other energy sources are required on the electricity grid.
"If we are serious about realising the potential of this industry we need to think bigger than solely our EU mandated domestic targets for 2020. In order to realise our great potential, we need to install the physical infrastructure and in order to export the power. The interconnector between Ireland and Britain is a significant step in the right direction. I am determined that, under this Government, we will see Ireland move towards realising its fantastic wind potential."
(CD)
