Mr. Peter Harte:

We have circulated slides. I will focus on the key issue regarding wind, which is community engagement and social acceptance. I will take members through the history of this. There has been a detailed process of engaging with communities since 2006, following the Department's guidelines, and IWEA developed a number of codes of practice as well as updates to the guidelines over the years in 2012. The Department launched a good document in 2016 and we fully support and endorse it. We produced a document on being a good neighbour in 2013 and formalised the practice of the time of putting in place a community benefit fund of some €1,000 per MW. The amount is proposed to be increased under the RESS consultation, which sets a price a of €2 per MW hour, bringing the figure to €275,000 per turbine over the life of a project. They are substantial figures and, not surprisingly, we find that these funds are very well received.

All this process and paperwork would not count for anything if it did not have an effect and we believe, notwithstanding a vocal minority, that there is very strong support for wind in Ireland. One of the studies that was carried out was a survey of 2,000 adults in October 2017, which showed that 84% of people were fully or strongly in favour of wind energy, with only 3% strongly opposed. This 3% are very vocal and we hear a lot from them but it is important to keep the numbers in perspective. The trend is also important and support has been rising over the past five years. Another study commissioned by the ESRI last May gives almost exactly the same result and it has some useful suggestions for moving forward with community benefit and community ownership.

Members will see specific examples of the Sliabh Bawn project, which is a Coillte and Bord na Móna joint venture of 58 MW. In addition to the traditional community benefit, that project did some groundbreaking stuff by building cycleways and equestrian trails and having 5 km running events, all of which were very well received.

On the next slide, members will see other innovations. There has been a lot of talk of community ownership and the industry fully supports this. We supported it in our response to the RESS consultation paper and some of our members are already offering this to communities. We have surveyed our members and 70% already have a community scheme in place, as well as being open to ownership. We may not have got everything right but our members are improving the level of engagement we have with communities and this has resulted in good acceptance. We will continue to raise the bar in this area.