Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I believe I know where Deputy Carthy is coming from. I know the piles around Castlepollard. A problem arose last year for private individuals who had piles of peat that was to be hauled away on the moving-floor trailer to the place of processing. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in its great judgment, decided to start following people around roads. It does not do what it is supposed to do but its staff followed people around the roads and insinuated that a pile of peat harvested a year or two before required planning permission if it was to be moved. Bord na Móna probably has peat harvested up to 2020. The line of questioning indicates that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Had Bord na Móna the same problem or was it just encountered by private individuals? I would say this is what Deputy Carthy was getting at. Mr. Breen is signalling that Bord na Móna has had no problem, which is good, and that EPA staff are not following its drivers around the roads.

With regard to wind farms, Bord na Móna has teamed up with the ESB in Oweninny in Mayo. Mr. Breen will be aware that a company has gone into receivership and that subcontractors are badly affected. The land on which the wind farm is to be constructed is that of Bord na Móna and the project entails co-financing. Deputies Ring, Conway-Walsh, Calleary and I contacted the ESB but the phones must not be working there because no one ever got back to us to meet to resolve this issue. A message needs to go back to whoever is responsible in the ESB. We are told there is a 50:50 arrangement between Bord na Móna and the ESB. It is unfortunate to think that two Northern outfits were brought to Oweninny in the past week to go pricing. There are 28 turbines done and three to go up. The contractors, one of which once did the runway of an airport, were doing all the work on the project while Roadbridge was there only in name. The workers have all come together and made a proposal. They have the expertise but no one got back to them.

I presume Bord na Móna will get involved in this and give a fair hearing to somebody involved rather than two Northern outfits that have come down to look at a job locals were doing. If Mr. Breen is talking to someone in the ESB or Bord na Móna, he should be clear that there will be no machines going in anywhere unless the people in the west of Ireland are sorted. I want that message to go back to whoever in Bord na Móna deals with the ESB. In fairness to the politicians I have mentioned, and even me — the project is not in my area but I have a construction background — no northern person should be coming down and walking in on top of people in the west of Ireland. Mr. Breen can give that message to the ESB and his own people in Bord na Móna.