Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I believe Mr. Blount spoke about how projects can change dramatically from when they start planning to the end. That is part of the problem. I know it is good to have that community engagement. When the community does not accept a bad proposal and it does not go ahead, it sets back the other good projects in an area. I can think of a poor project in Galway now and contrast it with the Galway Wind Park which got great support. Do we need to look at best practice from the outset and not to make a proposal that is likely not to get support because it does not always change over time and then negativity has set in at a very early point?

I do not believe the witnesses talked about opportunities for Ireland on the manufacturing and maintenance side. We are talking about energy generation and exporting excess energy, but perhaps there is an opportunity for Ireland to get involved even though we are coming to it later than other countries, such as Germany. What opportunities might exist in that regard?

Why do we need to make more investment in the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS? How does that impact on planning for the wind energy industry?

Quite apart from the grid what other infrastructure is required in order to get the west and north west from bottom of the heap to being more advanced? Again, communities are likely to come on board when they see investment in their area, including other types of infrastructural investment that go hand in hand with the investment in energy.