Ms Danielle Conaghan:

The developers work in parallel with the application for a MAC. They prepare their site surveys, environmental impact assessment reports and Natura impact assessment reports. They package their entire planning application together for the offshore and onshore elements, or just onshore if that is where they are, along with the grid considerations. The relevant projects, which were the first to go ahead, were awarded their MACs just before Christmas and so are ready to go in with pre-applications to the board. The point is that for as long as a judiciary challenge continues, and no one knows how long that is going to take, there is no certainty. They cannot really move on to the next stage unless they have certainty. Where we are providing for certainty in relation to judicial review timelines and expedited ones here in respect of planning permissions, we respectfully suggest that the same expedited timelines be afforded to maritime area consents. Otherwise, we are going to get stuck on the very first rung on the ladder in achieving the targets.