Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 April 2026
117. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to outline the current progress on the Government strategy to develop offshore wind energy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27458/26]
View answerFive offshore wind projects off our East coast, with a planned capacity of 3.8 gigawatts, are at present in development. Each of these projects hold a Maritime Area Consent and provisional grid connection offer. The first planning determination is anticipated by the end of 2026, with projects anticipated to be operational by the early 2030s.
In December 2025, I announced that the Helvic Head Offshore Wind consortium, a joint venture of ESB and Orsted, had won my Department’s second offshore wind auction. The Tonn Nua project was awarded a MAC in March 2026. Eirgrid is responsible for constructing the Tonn Nua offshore transmission assets and has committed to making a grid connection available by 2033.
My Department is currently developing proposals for an auction of the second site within the South Coast DMAP. My Department is working with Eirgrid to develop grid connection options and I will make a formal announcement in the coming months but I expect the auction to take place in 2027.
My Department is also advancing the National ORE DMAP, which aims to designate sites around Ireland’s entire sea area capable of delivering up to 15GW of Offshore Renewable Energy, to be in development by 2040. The delivery of this plan is a key priority for Government and has a target date of end of 2027 for publication.
The Future Framework for Offshore Renewable Energy, published in May 2024, sets out Government’s long-term strategy for developing ORE in Ireland. A review was carried out in 2025 and published, outlining progress made to date and amending any actions as required. A further review will take place this year.
The cross-Departmental Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce, established in 2022, brings together work ongoing across government, agencies and industry to deliver on Ireland’s offshore wind ambitions.
