150. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment when the Grid Options Report for the South Coast will be finalised and published. [65963/26]

Following the success of my Department's first two offshore wind auctions in 2023 and 2025, I am planning for Ireland’s next offshore wind auction in 2027 of the Lí Ban site, located off the coast of Waterford in the South Coast DMAP. There is a range of tasks on the critical path to conducting an auction in the second half of 2027 and I plan to publish a 'Roadmap to the Lí Ban Auction' in the fourth quarter of this year.

A key element of planning for the Lí Ban auction is the necessary work to establish the best technical option for connecting the Lí Ban site to the onshore grid and evaluating related cost and financing proposals. My Department has been working on this with Eirgrid since the beginning of 2026. Eirgrid has submitted detailed proposals to my Department and my Department has in turn commissioned engineering consultants AFRY to advise on the evaluation. This work is ongoing. I expected that the detailed grid connection information report will be published in 2027 as part of the auction process.