2025-12-18

104. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the position regarding initiatives within his Department that seek to prioritise the fast tracking of offshore wind energy infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73598/25]

My question is about the provision of offshore wind energy and initiatives his Department might have put in place to fast-track that, particularly in the context of dealing with the frustrations of people who recognise that, as I understand it, there is currently no operating offshore wind capacity in Ireland.

The Deputy is right in what he said. The lack of capacity is due to the phasing out of the facility on the Arklow Bank. The Deputy will be familiar with the announcement recently about the Tonn Nua site, which is just off the south-east coast. That announcement was very positive in the sense that an auction system was deployed. We had four bidders and we got a very good price at less than €100 per MW hour. There have been a number of auctions in other countries that have effectively failed because there were no bidders. We are on the right path The plan-led development through the use of the designated marine area plan, DMAP, is a critical part of the Government's strategic plan for our maritime area. This is reflected by the commitment stated in the programme for Government to fast-track offshore wind development by prioritising the publication of the DMAPs. There is a plan in place, which I am shepherding through at the minute. It is a national DMAP. We hope to have it concluded by the end of 2027. Three additional sites have been identified in the south-east coast DMAP. Tonn Nua has gone to auction. It has been announced that there are three other opportunities there, and they will be advanced in a timely way. There are some real issues to be resolved in terms of how that might pan out. Then, by 2027, we hope to have a national DMAP that will identify enough sites to get us to our 2040 target of an additional 15 GW of electricity. That is progressing with pace. In addition to that, we want to identify at least one but potentially two sites suitable for floating offshore wind, which really has great potential from an Irish perspective in the sense that it would give us the capacity to generate enormous amounts of electricity that might potentially be used for export, through interconnection or with some of the imaginative projects which the ESB and others are involved in, looking at converting to hydrogen or ammonia as a methodology of storing the energy.

I do recognise that some progress has been made but I know from speaking to people around the country that there is a real frustration at the lack of speed of decision-making. If a decision is made today to start a process to establish a wind farm offshore, whether that is implanted into the seabed or floating, we are many years away from the realisation of that plan. Honestly, people do not understand why that should be the case. It should not take that long. I recognise what the Government has put forward in terms of an infrastructure plan that it is going to shorten those times but in terms of what the Minister's Department is doing, what specifically are we doing to make sure that these things can happen faster? In particular, the Minister State said there have been no bidders. Has the Department examined why that is the case and identified why it is that the many international companies that are operating in this field feel it is not worth their while bidding for projects off the coast of Ireland? If it does not have bidders, what are we doing about that? Is there some other State instrument that can step in to fill that place or is there something we need to change in the terms of that auction?

To the Deputy's last point, we are fortunate that due to the way in which our auctions are designed, we have attracted significant bidders. Four is particularly good. There were instances in the UK, Denmark and Germany where there were no bidders because they had moved away from the contract for difference component of the auction. We are, therefore, in a very healthy position. What we have done in recent years is move towards the plan-led approach. Prior to that, it was basically that developers identified sites and came forward. The planning process was somewhat slower at that time and they ran into some complications. There are a number of them out there - about five - that we want to progress and are progressing through the planning phases. They will be very significant contributors to our generation. However, the plan-led approach that is there now is working. The example I have given the Deputy of the Tonn Nua site off the south-east coast in terms of the design of the auction has worked really well, and there is interest. We are regularly in contact with potential bidders to ensure they understand what the Government strategy is. What they want is certainty. They want to know that the country is committed to offshore, which we are, and that there is a pipeline of projects. We have set a plan in place now for that timeline.

I welcome the fact the Minister is reiterating the State's commitment to offshore because as an offshore island, essentially, this has huge potential for us. I think of the projects even in my own constituency or off the coast of my constituency in the case of the Codling Wind Park and Dublin Array projects. They are hugely important projects but the level of investment from RWE or the contracting companies there is enormous before they ever get off the ground. That has to be a disincentive in real terms for companies that actually want to invest in our infrastructure, provide us with clean energy and help us to get to a point where we are actually a net energy exporter. That is really important. I appreciate what the Minister said but I ask him to redouble his efforts in terms of specifically addressing the delays issues. I recognise what the plan is in terms of judicial reviews and establishing a local standard for judicial reviews; a person cannot be living in County Donegal and object to one off Rosses Point or something like that. That is really important. Let us make it easy for people to do it, and the easiest way to do it is to make it quicker.

I fully support what the Deputy is saying. The projects he referred to are projects that have been there. They are referred to as the phase 1 projects. They were in existence prior to the State intervening to resolve the issue by having a plan-led approach and setting out a clearer pathway for companies to progress their ambitions. Of course, we are working with those companies also to ensure that those projects, which, as I said, are phase 1 and somewhat legacy to the system that is there now, are progressed and progressed quickly. There is work under way too with the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, to ensure the appropriate permissions are progressed. There is the potential for some changes there that will expedite those projects. However, the plan-led approach is giving a very clear direction of travel in terms of the commitment to offshore energy generation and a commitment to ensure there is a pipeline into the future towards 2040, with real targets and a recognition by the State that it will have to stand behind those projects through the contract for difference approach that has been successful and is attractive to bring that investment to the country.