Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Comptroller and Auditor General once stated, this is the starting point. I quote him every time anybody is asked for anything.

On the issue of wind farm guidelines, we operate on old, out-of-date ones. We have been told for years that new ones are expected and that it is a matter for the Department but I do not understand it. When people started building wind turbines, they normally had a height of 50 m, but they are now 180 m and we still have the same setbacks. The Department is negligent - that is the most polite word. The guidelines are utterly not fit for purpose. They are not suitable for the scale of the structures coming through the system. They were designed for a system when wind turbines were much smaller than they are now. I have made my point. The Department should publish new guidelines. I am tired of asking parliamentary questions.

The board is doing a review and I acknowledge that there was an event in Belgium. I attended it several times and our guests will have seen my name in the debates. The World Health Organization, WHO, issued new guidelines recently, which has delayed the review even further. When an appeal from a wind farm is received, there are WHO guidelines on setback distance, flicker and whatever but the statutory guidelines from the Department are way behind the WHO guidelines. Which does the board work off? Does it work off those given by the Department, knowing they are not the best ones for sustainable development and that they are not in line with the WHO?