Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There are already and will be seven turbines in place at the Arklow wind bank, which have been in place for almost 20 years. Under the climate action plan 2023, the Government has committed to a target of a further 5 GW of installed offshore wind capacity in Ireland’s maritime area by 2030 and a further 2 GW from wind farms, which will be developed for conversion to other power uses. Significant work has been undertaken by my Department in the past two years to develop the regulatory framework to enable the construction and operation of offshore wind farms and associated infrastructure.

The national marine planning framework, which was adopted by Government in May 2021, is Ireland’s first marine spatial plan. The Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 was enacted in December 2021 and established the legislative foundation for the new marine planning system. Under the Marine Area Planning Act, a new maritime area consent, MAC, regime for offshore energy projects was developed by my Department to replace the foreshore lease system. I issued the first MACs for seven phase 1 offshore projects in December 2022.

In addition, a new maritime directorate has been established in An Bord Pleanála that will have responsibility for the assessment of planning applications for offshore development. The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, is being established, which will have sole authority for granting further MACs for all future marine infrastructure required to deploy offshore wind energy.

In order to provide a route to market for offshore wind projects, the Government approved the terms and conditions of the first offshore renewable electricity auction in November 2022. The auction process opened in January 2023 and final auction results will be available in June. The successful phase 1 projects with MACs will progress through the planning system. After having secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála, the developers will commence offshore wind farm construction and deployment, which will become operational in the latter part of this decade.

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