Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will keep this brief because it has been a long afternoon for everyone here. First, it is interesting to listen to what Ms Donnelly has to say. I could listen all afternoon. It would be good to get Ms Donnelly to speak to our communities. I had a wind farm on my doorstep and it was horrendous for me, a politician, to have to deal with it. It was a case of us and them. Even when I tried to plead the community card, it did not work. Something I suggested at the time was that one wind farm should be made available to the public as that would cover their ESB bills. This happens in Scotland and it works well, as Ms Donnelly probably will be aware. What is happening now, in terms of communities meeting and those developing the wind farms having a conversation, is very important. The wind farm is there a year and a half to two years, and the level of opposition has virtually died off. We did get on that mountain - it was Coillte land - a beautiful amenity area, which is being used by up to 2,000 people a month with very little advertising. It will help tourism in a major way in County Roscommon, which we badly need.

I will ask Ms Donnelly one or two questions about that. Some of the experts will say that such inland wind farms will be a no-no in a few years. Apparently, Germany does not do much of it anymore. That is one question. Does Ms Donnelly believe that to be the case?

Second, Ms Donnelly spoke a great deal about how we bring communities together on this, but how is that barrier broken? No matter what efforts are made, there will still be a significant barrier to be broken down even to have the discussion. The trust factor is not there. I do not have an issue with wind farms once the community is taken into account. In my own locality, we are fortunate where we have the community programme in terms of funding coming from the owners of the wind farm to help out community projects.

One of the unfortunate things about it is that a Leader company from east Cork opts for Roscommon. At the time, Coillte said it did not want to put locals on it and I can see that point to a degree. They might favour "A" over "B". However, the arrangement is not satisfactory for a local community.

Another issue is that people do not trust the planning regime. They will always say the council will grant permission and Coillte will uphold the council's decision, notwithstanding the total process. The question, therefore, is how we break that barrier down. Battery areas or units were referred to in respect of wind farms. These are now being put in beside the wind farms and in other places and there are huge concerns among the public about this. They are just afraid of it. How do we break down that barrier? I am told in my area that the batteries would be used to gather electricity for release in an emergency and, therefore, we would have fewer power cuts.

Deputy Ryan made an excellent point on heating systems in schools and, like other members, I support that. I note the point about offshore wind farms. It is called the "wild" Atlantic and there will be huge problems servicing those wind farms, notwithstanding what some of the experts say. Other parts of the world were referred to. If one looks at the wind factor, it is less severe or bold than it is in the Atlantic, which is ferocious. There is a big difference between having a wind farm in the Irish Sea compared to the west of Ireland. Is there an issue there?

I would like to make a contribution on biofuels but I am not going to go into that any further today. My final question is on our 2020 targets. It is a huge issue. I accept what Ms Donnelly said in that regard. It is bad for Ireland. However, the vast majority of the public does not care. How do we break that barrier down to get it through to the population as a whole that we have a serious fines issue coming down the track? It is going to hit our budgets and other projects in this country if we are going to get caught with all those fines. Many members of the public do not care. They will talk about it but they do not care. How do we change that mindset? I will keep my other questions for another day.