Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the two amendments, it probably reflects how our perspective has changed on onshore wind farms. Granting significant pieces of infrastructure planning permission on a time basis would be like in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s us considering motorways on a time basis. I think we now realise how important onshore infrastructure is. There is a significant strategic risk for Ireland in that, based on information from Wind Energy Ireland, I understand between 75 and 80 wind farms will reach that time cliff edge. We need to be careful that what could amount to 20% of the entire installed wind capacity on the island would be subject to review. I am not suggesting there will be no process for extension. We need to look at our competitors in other European countries. Scotland, for example, has moved away from this type of time-based system.

The idea that a key piece of strategic infrastructure would be bound by time alone is just not consistent with the idea of us respecting a climate crisis and the investment that happens on these sites. We talked about key changes to the development plan in respect of the previous sections. There is a very strong argument for us to move away from the idea of it being time based, and a specific application having a specific time, towards us having the ability to be much more flexible, without diluting the obligations we might have under Aarhus, the habitats directive or any other directive. I ask the Minister to reflect on it to see what we can do specifically to try to protect and retain the infrastructure that is being invested in.