Ireland needs to take a number of steps to build on the "significant progress" made in the development of offshore wind, according to Wind Energy Ireland.
The industry group today launched its Offshore Wind Action Plan 2026, which coincided with the start of its annual conference on the topic.
It said that the US-Iran war - and the energy crisis it has sparked - highlighted the need for Ireland to rapidly reduce its dependence on imported gas and oil.
WEI said Ireland has made progress in developing large-scale offshore wind projects in recent years, but more needed to be done.
"The Taoiseach and Minister O'Brien have established a clearing house for offshore wind energy, so this is a meeting of multiple government departments to try to remove any blockages to delivering the first phase of offshore wind projects off Ireland's east coast," said Noel Cunniffe, CEO of WEI. "In our view [there are] 18 actions which need to be delivered over the the next 12 months to build on those foundations and to deliver projects quickly."
Mr Cunniffe said they included ensuring An Coimisiún Pleanála was adequately resourced so that applications for wind farm developments could be dealt with promptly.
WEI recently noted a slowdown in the progress of wind project planning applications. Mr Cunniffe said their call was not about creating short-cuts in the process, but ensuring it was as efficient as possible.
"It's really important that the planning process is absolutely robust and that when decisions come out that they can stand up to scrutiny," he said. "The key thing there is making sure that An Coimisiún Pleanála has the resources that they need to hit the timelines for consent.
"Really excitingly, we are going to get two decisions this year, is our estimation, and then further decisions to follow early next year."
Beyond that, he said there needed to be clarity around the contracts required for projects to connect to the electricity grid.
He said it was then important to "build out the future pipeline" of wind farm projects, beyond those that are currently going through the planning process.
"Currently, we don't have line of sight for when the next projects are coming along. So getting that certainty is going to be crucial," he said.
Mr Cunniffe said there also needed to be a greater effort to ensure that Ireland's ports were capable of facilitating offshore wind project development once they had the planning and funding required to begin.
"There's only one port on the island of Ireland at the moment that can build offshore wind energy. That's in Belfast. Later this year, Cork will join that too," he said "But we're going to need more if we're going to be able to bring those jobs to Ireland."
