Mr. Jason Fitzgerald:

Deputy Moynihan asked why people are being treated differently. Forestry is one of the key issues. The problem is that Coillte had already planted its forestry at the time of the designation. By law, it is required to replant. The view was that to achieve balance in a special protection area, SPA, there would be a 50:50 split between forestry and non-forestry ground. In my presentation I raised the issue of why the National Parks and Wildlife Service had offered so much forestry if it never had any intention of giving of it. The truth is, and the figures show this, the NPWS never had any intention of allowing farmers to plant that amount of ground.

They were hoodwinked.

Wind turbines have been erected alongside their boundary ditches of several members of our organisations, in similar ground to theirs. If such a turbine fell, it would hit the farmer on the head. The development companies dealing with the wind turbines do not listen to private landowners, even during planning or construction stage, because of the bureaucratic issues that would ensue.