Up to March 2023 the Irish Government encouraged a developer-led approach for offshore renewable energy projects, meaning that developers could pick and choose potential windfarm sites. However, a policy shift announced in March determined that windfarm projects would be developed via a new planning process. This new process involves windfarm developers competing for permission to build windfarms on sites preselected by the Government.

The selection of DMAP sites, within which developers then compete for permission to construct, should be determined by an ecosystem-based process.  Unfortunately, in Ireland ecosystem considerations do not appear to have influenced the DMAP site selection process. Instead, high biodiversity value areas have been selected that encompass sites already targeted by developers, making a nonsense of the idea that Ireland is espousing a plan-led approach. Nonetheless, the decision to create DMAPs is Ireland’s first attempt at maritime spatial planning with regard to offshore wind energy development and, undoubtedly, is a welcome step because, in theory at least, it means that there is a commitment to a State-led planning approach to identify specific sites suitable for offshore renewable energy production.

Developed by the newly established Marine Area Regulatory Authority (MARA), Ireland’s first DMAP includes areas off Waterford, Wexford and Cork. Further DMAPs are planned for designation along our east coast, again an area where developers have already targeted vast areas of the coastal zone for development.