James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I think the Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs is looking after us this evening.

While we fully agree with the need to boost long-term competitiveness on the issue of wind energy, the location of wind farms is of great concern to the people of my constituency of Longford-Westmeath and the entire country. It is, however, necessary to give consideration to this issue from a planning point of view. When we consider the tourist implications of unsightly pylons and blades, it is extremely important that location is taken into account. We should not locate wind farms so that they may be a blight on the landscape. We should not locate them within a densely populated area, nor where they will cause noise pollution.

I would have liked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, to be present on this issue. A disturbing statistic is that 80% of materials for wind farms are imported, I am told, from China. It would make good economic sense to develop a factory to manufacture those products in Ireland, and I would welcome its location in Longford-Westmeath which would give much needed employment to a constituency that has over 15,000 people unemployed. It is something that the Minister should look at. I have been criticising him and the Government in this House over the lack of employment opportunities in my constituency. This is something that should be kick-started in the midlands.

Over the years, planners have extraordinary powers of personal discretion on granting or refusing permissions resulting in many inconsistencies, injustices and bad planning in all areas. We must protect the culture and heritage of rural areas for the local people. Without people in a rural community, such communities will wither and die.

The Government's national bio-fuels strategy has been a failure because proper planning did not go into the project. It does not surprise me coming from this Government. Having set a target of achieving a 4% bio-fuels rate by this year, it has in reality only reached less than a quarter of this figure. So much for planning and strategy by the Government.

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