Mr. Justin Moran:

On section 249, it is less a concern and more a desire to see what we think are positive changes in judicial review timelines extended elsewhere.

As members will be aware, we are hoping to develop approximately 7,000 MW of offshore wind energy between now and 2030. The first set of maritime area consents have been offered to what are called the relevant projects. Members will be familiar with those from their previous legislative discussions. We will see more maritime area consents being issued in the near term. What we would like to see is that if a maritime area consent is awarded to a project and if an application for leave to take a judicial review is applied and if the judicial review is granted, the timelines that are set out in section 249 would apply in that context as well. This is critical for us to be able to develop offshore wind energy. One thing we were asked in a previous committee meeting was what we thought the chances were of us hitting our 2030 targets for offshore wind. We were honest and said that they are less than 50:50. We are working as hard as we can. We have the timeline of projects, we have the expertise and we have the investment but anything that would slow that down would be a drawback to this-----