Mr. Patrick Swords:

As regards our planning system here, in the UN proceedings at Geneva the written documentation from the European Union pointed out a number of issues in Ireland. In particular as regards planning of all medium and large-scale projects such as wind turbines and electricity generation systems, the environmental impact assessment directive dates back to 1985. It is also part of Article 6, the main component of the Aarhus Convention on citizens' procedural rights. The EU pointed out that it knew of no other member state that had been involved in so many compliance issues and actions at the European Court over failures to comply with one single directive as Ireland had with that directive. That is not a good endorsement.

It also pointed out our failure to transpose properly the strategic environmental assessment directive. That failure led to EirGrid bypassing the necessary Grid25 SEA and did not engage in proper public participation process. It only received 22 submissions, of which only three, including one from me, could be identified as having come from the public.

There is a massive problem with regard to access to justice. Dissent protects democracy. Ireland has had major problems with groupthink which led to our economic collapse. It is right that people should have the right to challenge when they see substantive and procedural breaches. That is part of the convention and part of people's human rights. However, we do not have arrangements for proper access to the courts that is not prohibitively expensive. Last week, the UK, where the cost of access to courts is lower, was ruled to be in breach of the European directive and the convention with regard to being not prohibitively expensive. Its legal system did not comply. The Irish Academy of Engineering has pointed out that the regulatory system in Ireland is dysfunctional and unfit for purpose. It leads to enormous frustrations for developers and citizens.

As with any development, with wind farms the purpose of environmental impact assessment is to weigh it up and identify the negative effects, which are considerable, and the positives. There is only one positive - an alleged environmental benefit. When that is summed up, all An Bord Pleanála can do, because it is the obligation of it or the local authority, is to make pub talk statements such as "makes a valuable contribution to climate change". It has no figures or data.

The national renewable energy action plan proposed to develop 7,145 MW of wind energy. How will we fit that in with a distributed rural population and ensure they will be protected? We never carried out a strategic environmental assessment before we adopted it to work out the impact on human beings and develop the necessary mitigation measures as required by law. We put the cart before the horse.

Pillar 1 of the convention is about access to information, not just press releases. People want more detailed information and are entitled to it. When we seek that information from public authorities we are denied it. When we appeal to the Commissioner for Environmental Information and pay €150, we are told it takes one and a half to two years if it gets addressed at all. Bord na Móna refused to comply with a request in January 2012. It finally went to appeal, which it lost in September 2013. It is required by law to comply within three weeks and is still refusing to provide access to information when citizens submit AIE requests. Citizens cannot access information to which they are entitled, such as the cost-benefit analysis for this programme.

The swoosh that comes with wind turbine noise is highly different from standard plant noise. We must address this issue, but we are not doing so. The noise guidelines fail to address the issue of health and the contributions submitted. Ms Doolan lives in the countryside which will be industrialised by this development.