Who actually decides on the Mooir Vannin wind farm?

Windfarms are a hot topic on the Isle of Man at the moment. I've begun to read about the way the decision will be made because there seems to be a lot of assumptions on social media that all the MHKs will be voting on it. Here's my take on it, I'm not a lawyer, it's as accurate as my current knowledge and if I've got something factually wrong please tell me in the comments and I'll read up some more and correct this post.

The Marine Infrastructure Management Act was passed in 2016 to define the consenting process for carrying out controlled marine activities in Manx waters. This covers "offshore renewable energy generation, aggregate extraction, laying of submarine cables and pipelines, gas drilling, carbon capture and storage, and exploration for and exploitation of natural gas and petroleum". So not just for wind farms but also for drilling of gas or dredging the seabed for gravel, for example.

What do the Consenting Process Regulations say about how the Mooir Vannin wind farm decision will be made?

The Council of Ministers has the final decision, it is not something that 24 MHKs will get to vote on in the Keys.

Right now, an independent panel of four experts are studying the application in detail (the Examination stage) as well as hearing from the public, stakeholders, and those who have registered an interest. The official timeline says this stage is due to finish on September 9th 2026. The examiner's final report with their recommendations then has to be sent to the Council of Ministers within 60 working days. The Council of Ministers then has to make a decision to grant or refuse a consent within 30 working days of receiving the recommendations.

So what does that mean for the election and the phrase "would you vote for the wind farm"?

The current sitting MHKs who get re-elected are more likely to be Ministers in September, and it is the Council of Ministers who will decide on the Mooir Vannin application. If they were to state their position publicly during the Examination phase, and before the independent recommendations have been made, they're effectively giving the final decision an appearance of bias, or pre-determination, which would make the final decision open to judicial review. This is why all MHKs and election candidates have been given a letter explaining this from the Attorney General.

If an MHK were to have stated publicly whether they support or do not support the Mooir Vannin application then they would be expected to recuse themselves from that Council of Ministers decision due to their conflict of interest.

If your favoured candidate has declared publicly that they support or do not support the Mooir Vannin application, then they're basically removing any possibility they have to make the decision.

For candidates like me, if we're elected, then we will not be ministers within the initial few weeks of the new administration and almost certainly will not get to make the Mooir Vannin decision.

So, why are so many candidates and sitting MHKs still being reserved about their opinion? Well, the advice from the Attorney General says that if any Ministers have to be recused because of conflict, then other Tynwald members will likely be drafted in as temporary ministers to take the conflicted Ministers' places, just for that decision. By declaring a position now, any candidate is effectively ruling themselves out of any hope of being involved in the application decision. If we are reserved in our views, there is a hope that we might be drafted and gain the ability to decide.

I'd rather have a chance of sitting around the table for this decision than not having a say at all.

So, strategically, if any of the lobby groups want to influence the next crop of MHKs and Ministers, then pushing for a public answer to the question "how will you vote" potentially has the risk that none of their supporting MHKs will be allowed to make the decision, because then they'll be conflicted.