Ireland's National Plan for Offshore Wind unveiled- National Designated Maritime area Plan (DMAP)
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Published by Irish Government on 12/09/2025
The Government has published the National Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) proposal and accompanying Public Participation Statement (PPS), outlining plans to develop and manage offshore renewable resources along Ireland’s coast.
The National Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) will provide a spatial planning policy framework for ORE, including spatial designations. It will assist in realising the State's overriding energy security and decarbonisation policies and objectives.
The National ORE DMAP will aim to designate sufficient maritime area to deliver a target of 20GW of offshore renewable energy by 2040 taking account of the Phase one projects and sites already designated by the South Coast DMAP (SC-DMAP).
The Proposal
The National ORE DMAP Proposal is a statutory document which sets out the intention to make a National Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for offshore renewable energy (ORE), in accordance with Part 2 of the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021. The DMAP will provide policy objectives, some of which will be unique to the specific classes of ORE and will include spatial designations where relevant. It will ensure a plan-led approach is taken to prospective ORE development on a commercial scale, including floating wind demonstration developments, and thereby ensuring that such development is managed in a strategic and sustainable way.
The National DMAP will apply the extensive policy framework provided for in the National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) and will take into account existing, permitted or planned ORE taking place in the maritime area. In this way, the National DMAP will enable an alignment of existing energy policy and activities with forward spatial planning.
The proposed National DMAP and Public Participation Statement accelerate Ireland’s offshore renewable energy ambition via a plan-led framework guiding Ireland’s offshore renewable energy development. The documents set out information on the scope of the overall plan, timeframes and the required steps in the development of the DMAP over the next two years, as well as the Government’s commitment to extensive and inclusive consultation with the public and stakeholders throughout the entire process.
You can find the proposal here