Sites on which major developments are now proposed were selected more than 20 years ago on a first-come-first served basis, in the absence of any environmental safeguards. They were not selected based on where sustainable development could take place, but on the technology available at the time. 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.

Because of this historic mis-management, the reality is that, in spite of intensive efforts by government to chart a pathway to completion for these legacy projects, because they are effectively the wrong developments in the wrong places, many are being challenged through Judicial Review. Not alone is this extremely costly for the State (essentially the tax-payer) it means that (1) whether or not these…