Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make a general comment and then ask a question on this. When Wind Energy Ireland and other industry representatives were before the committee, and in subsequent correspondence, they raised this issue. Their argument was the existing 25-year time limitation was fine when the technology was at a less advanced stage but, increasingly, the technology is 30 years plus. They strongly urged the committee to consider this. There are challenges with what they asked for. If you talk to environmental organisations, for example, they will highlight that an unlimited, or longer, time period has potential environmental and biodiversity consequences. In addition, "lifetime" could mean after a wind farm is no longer operational, when there are issue around decommissioning, etc. I am interested in hearing, and it is helpful that Deputy McAuliffe tabled the amendment, the Minister's thoughts more generally, as the technology advances, on how we ensure that our planning system is making appropriate grants of permission that balance the need to provide onshore and offshore renewable wind technology, and do not create unintended consequences, for example, of an environmental or decommissioning nature. I am halfway between the two sets of arguments.

Given that the existing section 40 of the Act has that 25-year limitation, it might be helpful to state for the public record what the current provisions of this Act are. Is it a simple transposition of the existing Act? Is it something slightly different? If the Minister is not accepting Deputy McAuliffe's amendment as outlined, where is the Minister and the Department's thinking on this? This issue will not go away, irrespective of what way the relevant sections of the Bill land.