Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

Electricity Generation and Export: Discussion

3:15 pm

Mr. Kevin O'Donovan:

On the Greenwire project, most of our sites are in designated areas. As Deputy Cowen pointed out, some counties have strategies at different stages and some counties have no strategies in place. Some sites that we may identify at an early stage may be outside the designated areas. As I mentioned earlier, as part of the site selection and assessment process the onus is on the various experts we have working on the environmental impact assessment for the project. The process they carry out to assess the suitability or otherwise of sites is to prove that any specific site that might be outside a current wind-designated area has merits that warrant its being considered to go forward for a planning application. We are in the process now. If the site is unsuitable based on that assessment, it is not included in the planning application. Ultimately the planning application goes through the planning process, with the board and the local planning authority giving their views on the suitability of those sites.