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Protected areas in Irish waters will not be created in time to guide decisions on off-shore wind farms.
Plans to designate 30pc of Irish waters as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are running behind preparations for a string of wind farms along the east and south coasts.
Officials say planners will be encouraged to use the best evidence available from existing conservation data and have regard to proposed designations when making decisions.
Sinn Féin planning spokesman, Eoin Ó Broin, says, however, it is a back-to-front way of going about business.
“We don’t have those designations, we don’t have them mapped out, we don’t even have sensitivity mapping of where they might be,” he said.