Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs

Planning Challenges in Offshore Renewable Energy: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Justin Moran:

The projects went into planning in April of last year. The requests for further information from An Bord Pleanála were extensive. That is quite a good thing in some ways because it shows An Bord Pleanála was resourced up thoroughly to investigate those applications. One of the challenges for us causing delays in many cases is that the RFIs asked us to do things that, had we been asked to do three or four years ago, our members could have done at that time. State agencies did not have the resources to engage with us in advance. That is one of the reasons it will take so long to respond to their requests for further information. Rolling forward from that, assuming we get planning permission, unfortunately we believe that projects will be sent for judicial review. That period of time will need to elapse. Once that happens, we can then move to construction. However, unfortunately it will take time.

I strongly agree with the Senator's point about ensuring everyone is on the same wavelength and everyone is involved. That is why the national DMAP is so critical. As Mr. McCabe said, the Department did a good job on the south coast DMAP, but that was a consultation and engagement for a very defined area. In doing that for the entire island of Ireland, how can we ensure that fishers from Killybegs get their voice heard?

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