Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. The witnesses referred to lands being "environmentally stabilised". Will they explain what that means? When these lands are vacated, will they be wet or dry? I have the mindset that one would normally try to dry out wet ground. Diversity was also mentioned but is the idea of creating a national park just an easy way out? Should we not be looking at the possibility of producing food? Can animals graze some parts of this land? Can we develop biomass crops? If we do, have we any way of harvesting them if the ground is very wet?

I am certainly in favour of wind energy but have the witnesses done any analysis of the impact of getting 400 kV of energy from those sites? This is very topical at the moment with many people objecting to overground cables and pylons. Has this been examined thoroughly in the context of the concerns of the public? The picture on the presentation is lovely, with sailing boats, people strolling around and so forth, but realistically how much of the countryside do we need for boating and strolling around? I do not do much boating. Is there something sustainable here that will create wealth?