The webinar will be presented by Josh Fothergill – Founder & Director at FothergillTC – and Tadhg O’Mahony – Senior Scientific Officer, SEA Section – EPA.

The webinar will cover:

• An overview of the use of how environmental assessment and management tools are anticipated to align across plan-making, project consenting, project construction and operations, focussing on the complimentary roles of EIA and SEA.
• The EIA regulatory context linking it with SEA and opportunities this can provide to EIA and project consenting.
• The purpose of SEA, what it does and its developing legislation
• Discussion of SEA’s use in the energy sector with a case study
• SEA and Monitoring
• Environmental Assessment Tiering – an exploration of integration at both strategic scale – with plan-making and Appropriate Assessment – and into project level – the value it can offer to our EIAs.
• Live Q&A on your EIA Questions

Those attending will improve their understanding of:

• How SEA and EIA fit together and where the project level legislation anticipates links with SEA to be considered.
• The basis of SEA, developing legislation and requirements.
• Where and how SEA has been applied in Ireland’s energy sector
• Benefits to EIA practice from greater awareness of SEA (findings and guidance)

The webinar will open with a brief explanation of Green Tech Skillnet and Skillnet Offshore Wind Academy ambitions and actions in seeking to improving EIA effectiveness by support skills growth in this area within the renewable sector.

The webinar’s main content will be delivered by the Chair Josh Fothergill (Founder of Fothergill Training & Consulting Ltd) and our Guest Speaker – Tadhg O’Mahony (Senior Scientific Officer, SEA Section – EPA).

The presentation will begin with Josh providing an overview of the links between different environmental assessment and environmental management tools in relation to plan-making, consenting and project delivery. After which he will highlight where the EIA Regulations and guidance documents highlight opportunities to make use of the SEA process and its findings to help deliver more effective and proportionate assessment.

The webinar will hand over to Tadhg – the EPA’s lead on Strategic Environmental Assessment – to build understanding of the EIA’s plan-making cousin and explore how improve awareness can aid EIA practice. Tadhg will set out the purpose of SEA, its legislation (including 2026 developments), what this form of assessment does. The role SEA is playing in the energy sector will be explored discussing the EPA’s guidance, where the tools has been applied and diving into a case example of a recent energy plan SEA. Challenging areas of practice will be discussed along with linkages to project level assessment, in relation to alternatives, cumulative effects and mitigation and monitoring. Tadhg will conclude with thoughts on integration both at the plan scale – how SEA links to appropriate assessments and improving plan-making – and, importantly, assistance it could offer to effective EIA at the project scale through farming and aiding this work.

The presentation element of the webinar is anticipated to be 45-50mins and will be followed by a live Q&A with the audience (~15mins). Questions will be submitted via the live chat function and asked by the GTS-SOWA webinar Chair.

Those interested in how environmental issues are considered in relation to renewable energy projects whether they are already working in the sector / involved in EIA, or interested in starting / rejoining a career linked to the environment and Ireland’s renewable energy goals.

Live Webinar with Q&A, part of Green Tech Skillnet and Skillnet Offshore Wind Academy’s continuing effort to enable greater cross-cutting conversations about EIA and improving the supply of skilled professionals to this and related roles in the sector.

This webinar is part of a series of EIA webinars, with the earlier recordings available from the Green Tech Skillnet website:

• Introduction to EIA
• Proportionate EIA via Scoping & Significance
• Unpacking the Cumulative Effects Challenge in EIA
• Appreciating EIA related Case Law and Legislative Change
• EIA and Delivery – The Environmental Management Interface

Future webinars is the series are being planned for the first half of 2027.

Registrants may also be interested in the slide decks from

EIA & Renewable Energy Conference (5^th March 2026, Athlone)

The slides can be accessed and downloaded via: Fothergill – EIA Conf 2026