Sites on which developments are proposed were selected 25 years ago, on a first-come-first served basis, in the absence of any assessment of their environmental suitability. In the intervening years, offshore wind technology has changed immeasurably. Developments no longer need to be sited in shallow water and the advent of floating wind has created the potential to site turbines further out to sea, where winds are stronger and where the worst impacts of developments on sensitive coastal waters can be mitigated.

The current situation is that the seven test turbines that were erected on the Arklow Bank in 2004 have reached the end of their lives and are being dismantled, additional capacity that was consented in 2002 and 2005 was never constructed, leaving Ireland today with net zero offshore wind.  Because of historic mismanagement and ongoing failure to adhere to required EU environmental law, and in spite of intensive efforts by government to steam-roll the legacy projects through, Ireland has achieved nothing. On the one hand, this may be regrettable while, on the positive side, it provides us with a valuable opportunity to truly do offshore wind properly and in the public interest.

Recent reports from the National Economic and Social Council (NESC, April 2025) and the Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE, November 2025) explain that Ireland’s energy policy is headed into a ‘fog’ and urgently needs rebalancing. With two august bodies openly calling out shortcomings in Ireland’s energy policy – aligning with a narrative that Blue Ireland members and a few others (Frank McDonald, Irish Times, 2002) have been publicising for years – it would be foolhardy to move forward until the ‘fog’ has been cleared and our energy policy is re-balanced,  in line with the recommendations made by NESC and the IAE.  Doing offshore wind badly is not what Irish citizens need.