Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Not to disagree with Mr. Meally but the community development fund is not at all adequate. I will give an example. A large offshore wind farm project of the south coast of Ireland, specifically off the coast of my own county, is being considered at the moment. The investment threshold for that project is probably over €1 billion. The community dividend is payable over 15 years and is somewhere between €14 million and €18 million. The licence period of the farm is 25 years, which means there will be no payment for the other eight. There will be no community dividend income for that period. I understand from speaking to people that they do not set the tariff on community dividend. Rather, it is set by Government. This comes back to my original question. How can the SEAI be seen to influence Government policy and raise these issues? To be fair, €18 million over 15 years is not a substantial amount of money for an affected community of 15,000 to 20,000 people.