Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the points Mr. Curtin is making about the importance of involving communities, but it seems to me that there is an irony that those who profess to be most worried about the environment also seem to be the first to tog out against a lot of schemes by looking at it from a different environmental perspective. They do not mind interconnectors to nuclear power stations or whatever in Britain. That is fine because they do not notice it. However, they do notice a wind turbine and they object to many things being built, such as tidal barrages or anything like that.

Anything that touches the environment appears to be absolutely ruled out at one level. At the same time, when one considers the Corrib gas field, Carnsore and the like, virtually every option Ireland has generates huge internal opposition to it, coming from one end of the spectrum.