Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman and the Minister for giving me the opportunity to speak on the offshore renewable energy development plan. The Minister will be aware that there is profound concern from all residents around Dublin Bay at the proposed Dublin Array.

Unfortunately, many people who are interested in this area such as the Coastal Concern Alliance, believe the plan is an attempt at retrospective planning. It is an attempt to shut the stable door when the horse has bolted. By the end of 2006, some 1620 MW of wind generation had been approved off County Wicklow by the former Ministers, Frank Fahey and Noel Dempsey. In 2008, the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, came forward with significant price supports for wind. There was a huge rush of applications and astonishingly 99 leases for the Arklow and Codling Bank wind turbine fields were sold on by Airtricity, Treasury Holdings and Fred Olsen.

I have carefully gone through this document and while it is welcome, it is also disappointing. Why did the Minister not consider it prudent to consult the public again about some of the aspirations and comments in this document about wind energy generally, as well as the location of wind farms in Dublin Bay and elsewhere offshore? It is a grossly deficient document in that there is no cost-benefit analysis of wind or other alternative renewable energy sources. Therefore the economics of wind energy are discussed practically nowhere in this document which, in many respects, is deficient.

I am seeking a full Dáil debate on the document and on this project. It is deplorable that two Departments are dealing with this matter. Planning aspects are being handled by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, while energy aspects are being dealt with by Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. With two chefs, however, one often ends up getting a dog's dinner. That is what is happening in this regard.

I have strongly opposed the Dublin Array proposal due to the imposition of 145 turbines, some of which would be up to 160 m high, just five to ten kilometres off the south Dublin Bay coastline. It would be a grotesque intrusion on the environmental landscape. I have not seen anything in the proposed legislation about impacts on the landscape. In my own lengthy submission on the Dublin Array proposal I made the case that Dublin's quality of life and tourism would be greatly diminished if we end up looking out at a major industrial landscape across the bay.

Allied to this is the Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan, OREDP, which cannot be discussed in isolation from the current legislative framework. We have been operating under the 1933 legislation for the past 80 years. When I was the Labour Party's energy spokesperson I called for legislation in this area, as the current Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, did also. Finally, after three years of this Government, we have the general scheme of the Bill.

The involvement of An Bord Pleanála and oral hearings as part of the planning process are to welcomed compared to what I feel were the disgraceful granting of consents in the past. It is still deplorable, however, that this legislation has not been passed. It is one of many things that should have been passed by this House a long time ago.

There is grave concern about this document and therefore we should have a full-scale Dail debate to tease it out. We could also address the kind of issues that will emerge not just on the east coast but also the west coast. We must examine the future role that wind energy can play in this country's energy sector.

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