Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Deputy Ferris is correct that Scotland is a European, if not a world, leader in this area. Scotland, like Ireland, has propitious wind resources. Its energy policy in terms of oil and gas is retained at Westminster. The Scottish Government invests a great deal in the promotion of renewables, in particular wind. I would be hesitant to stick my neck out and say that the targets set by Scotland can be realised here for a whole variety of reasons, some of them technical. The Deputy will be aware that currently where the wind is best the grid is weakest. We need to address this and in that regard have announced the investment projects linking Cork to Kildare and the west grid from north Mayo to the midlands, which is important to that area.

We have been and are making good progress in this area. We are confident, based on expert advice, that we can meet our targets from onshore wind. As regards big versus small and so on, while there is a great deal of sense in what Deputy Ferris advocates organisations such as Meitheal na Gaoithe and other small developers who got involved in this area at an early stage would be aggrieved if the decision was made to exclude them. However, I agree with the Deputy that we cannot have wind farms at every crossroads in Ireland and that some projects of scale onshore is the desirable way to go. It may well be that the State companies, including Bord na Móna and Coillte, have a considerable role to play in facilitating that objective.

On the Deputy's point in regard to turbines, just as we do not want wind farms at every crossroads in Ireland, we do not want turbines unreasonably intruding on people's domestic residences. The response in the Seanad by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, to the Second Stage debate on the Wind Turbines Bill 2012 was that while the study is not yet complete she would favour the introduction of guidelines rather than primary legislation to deal with that issue.

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