The fate of the first offshore wind farms proposed in over 20 years could be known in the middle of next year under timelines set by An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Five projects are in the planning system, three of them having submitted planning applications last year and two earlier this year.
The State planning board has so far sought further information from the developers of four of them, the earliest of which is due to be supplied by next January.
Chief executive Peter Mullan said once that information was received and circulated to interested parties – a process that could take a month – he had set a timeline of a further four months for the board to decide whether to grant permission.
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Mr Mullan was before the Oireachtas Committee on Climate on Wednesday, explaining how the projects were progressing through the planning system after complaints from the wind industry that the process was too slow.
He told TDs and Senators that the applications were very large and complex and had been submitted to a planning board which had little previous experience or procedures for handling such specialist projects.
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“In addition to the application documentation, a total of 82 submissions from prescribed bodies and 291 third party submissions have also been received across the five projects,” he said.
“This information, significant amounts of which are of a very technical nature, has been reviewed both by our in-house inspectorate team and by relevant external consultants.
“Given the scale and complexity of the applications and submitted documentation, this review takes time.”
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Since this first tranche of projects was submitted, the Government has established a designated area with four sites for the next applicants to bid for off the Waterford coast, so much of the surveying will be completed in advance.
The first projects chose their own sites and had to carry out their own separate surveying.
Mr Mullan said the Coimisiún, which was formerly An Bord Pleanála, had also increased staff numbers, hired in-house expertise in the maritime field and had a panel of external experts to draw on.
He said decisions had to be carefully made as “these are new developments that will set a precedent for the assessment of future offshore renewable energy projects”.
The national climate action plan targets having offshore wind generating large amounts of electricity by 2030, but Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien recently conceded that target would not be met.
Matt Collins, assistant secretary at the Department of Climate, told the committee it was now expected the first offshore wind projects would be under construction by 2030 but not producing electricity until the early 2030s.
“There has definitely been a change in what we think is achievable,” he said.
