Environment Minister Eamon Ryan says dealing with the energy crisis goes hand-in-hand with climate action.
It comes after an EU poll found 58% of Irish folks think EU countries should be allowed to delay meeting climate targets to deal with rising energy costs.
But the Green Party leader told us outside the Wind Energy Ireland conference in Dublin on Wednesday morning: “The solutions to the cost of living crisis will help us on climate - and vice versa.
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“The crisis is caused by our reliance on fossil fuels so the solution is to develop our own power supplies, really be efficient in how we use that energy and that will be good for energy security, for bringing the bills down. It will also be good in terms of climate.
“The two go together.”
And Minister Ryan says he also believes Ireland can be “really good” at delivering on renewables.
“This is the industrial revolution of our time and while in Ireland we have been slow to start we are now up and running and we are actually going to deliver and make sure this is good for creating jobs in our country, for giving us energy security, for bringing the bills down and help tackle climate change,” he added.
“We’ve shown we can do this with onshore wind, now we need to do it with offshore and the scale and potential benefit to our country is beyond compare.”
Wind Energy Ireland CEO Noel Cunniffe says unlocking the capacity of ports across Ireland is key to the country’s “energy dependence”.
A report found Belfast is the only port on the island that is ready to build turbines for offshore wind farms.
The group is calling for more funding to support the industry and quicker planning processes to help the country meet its renewable targets.
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