Wind Energy Generation
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-06
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

There are a couple of things there. We have an independent planning process. Sometimes it is a frustration for us, in that we want to see things delivered quicker but that is the reality. We have had people who will object to offshore wind as well. We respect the right of third parties. However, we have done things well too. If you look at onshore, which I have mentioned previously, we are a European leader in the integration of renewables into our grid. We are a European leader - and one of the world leaders; number two in the world - in relation to onshore winds. We have gone from about 7% of electricity generation through renewables just 20 years ago to about 41% or 42% last year. This shows what is possible. To be fair, the granting of onshore applications by An Coimisiún Pleanála in quarter 1 and quarter 2 of this year reached record levels. That is why we have had a very successful RESS 5 auction. However, offshore is really where we are going to see that absolute pivot. If we look at just those five projects, there is nearly 4GW. We have between 6 GW and 7 GW of onshore renewables. We will see in these projects alone what that will deliver. I will come back in on supplementary regarding MARA.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-06/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-06