Marine regulator accused of performance ‘failure’ amid wind farm planning delays

The Government accused the regulator overseeing offshore renewable energy of slowing the delivery of “critical infrastructure” due to “prolonged delays” in decision-making.In February of this year, Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien wrote to the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (Mara) criticising its performance in 2025, charging it with “sustained underperformance … the consequences of which have been significant”. Mara, which handles consents and licensing for big projects like offshore wind farms and subsea cables, was forced to put in place measures to improve its delivery of decisions in October 2025. While it hit some targets under this plan, O’Brien said the agency had fallen “materially short” of others, representing a “clear failure to meet Mara’s own commitments”. READ MORE“Continued underperformance is not an option,” he told the agency in a letter released under Freedom of Information laws, demanding a new plan to improve performance.The Government has placed an emphasis on breaking down barriers to infrastructure delivery – including in green energy, with the State having failed to deliver any meaningful capacity in offshore wind farms as other countries have surged ahead.Ireland has only one operational offshore wind farm – Arklow Bank off the coast of Co Wicklow was built more than 20 years ago and began generating in 2004.In his letter to Mara, O’Brien wrote: “Delays to project delivery result in higher costs and hamper our ability to provide the necessary infrastructure to service a modern society and economy.“It also represents a real risk to our competitiveness and to our attractiveness as a location for foreign direct investment. This is why the underperformance for 2025 is so very disappointing.”In response to queries from The Irish Times, Mara said it was on track to meet its targets for 2026, which were significantly higher than 2025. It said it is focused on streamlining the decision-making process, pointing to the removal of “certain repetitive processes” when dealing with bodies like Uisce Éireann, EirGrid and Gas Networks Ireland. It said this move had reduced the average waiting time for new consents and licences to these organisations by more than 30 per cent, and that it was able to make a decision on the Greater Dublin Drainage project within eight weeks as a direct result of these changes. Monthly and quarterly meetings are now taking place between Mara and the department to monitor the rate of decision-making. “Mara is a young organisation that continues to develop and refine its processes. We are ... deeply conscious of the importance of delivering our remit in a timely and transparent manner.”A department spokeswoman said Mara had “significantly increased” its rate of decision-making in 2026.“The department acknowledges Mara’s significant efforts to improve its rate of decision-making and ... will continue to monitor the progress of Mara through regular governance meetings and management of the performance delivery agreement.”Two of Mara’s main functions are to grant maritime area consents and maritime usage licences. Examples of the former include electricity cables, offshore wind farms, wastewater infrastructure and fibre optic cables. As well as large utilities, state agencies, energy project developers and local authorities, applicants include multinational companies such as Amazon.Activities licences under the latter include underwater surveys for renewable development, oceanographic research and marine surveys. Officials noted that Mara was not meeting its statutory timelines for decisions on either in 2025 and that this had been taken up with the agency through “extensive and repeated engagement”. Last October, Mara committed to signing off on 20 consents and 12 licence determinations – aiming to reduce applications on hand by about half. It hit the former target but delivered only six of the latter, with officials telling O’Brien in briefing documents that an “unacceptable” backlog had developed. Mara said it had recruited more staff with relevant expertise in 2025 and developed the ability to bring contract staff aboard to respond to peaks in demand. It also began early analysis of applications and developed digital tools to allow for missing or incomplete information.