Codling: What will it take to build Ireland's largest offshore wind farm

Before we sort of get into the project, maybe I wanted to ask you about the big picture in Irish Offshore Wind.

We're walking here in September 2026.

We've got the phase ones of being on the move in a big way for five or six years.

Obviously a lot of those projects have been around for a lot longer than that.

You know, we had a successful CFD auction in 2023, but we haven't had planning decisions yet, although hopefully are due soon.

The prospects of getting any steel in the water in the next few years are looking fairly slim.

You know, before we sort of get into the detail, what's your sort of sense of Irish offshore wind in

general? There's a lot of support for offshore wind.

Things have been slower than we would have anticipated, and even I'm sure the government would have anticipated, but I think we have to take into account this is the first time this has really been done at scale.

Article 1 was built 2004, so 22 years ago.

That's the only time there's been any sort of real marine planning for offshore wind.

So everything's being redone, sort of reinvented, if you like, and all the legislation and policy has been put in place, but then it needs to be implemented.

And that implementation is just taking longer than we anticipated.

But that's not for the hard work of both the projects, the government, and also things like the regulators and ACP.

What we want is obviously an expedited process.

But we also want a consent that we can stand behind and actually go and build as well.

So it's a trade-off there.

But we're hopeful we'll get our consent early next year.

We'll be out for consultation on the further information requests.

We'll start on the 10th of September.

That's an eight-week process and thereafter ACP have given themselves a timeline of four months to determination after that.

So all being well, early next year we should have hopefully a positive determination.