Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened carefully to the replies. Many of the issues were raised in the debate. Populism was mentioned. We should be very clear that my party regards wind energy as part of the solution. We do not have a method of storing it. What we are doing here is setting out a set of practical proposals. I have read the Fianna Fáil proposals. In fairness, that party set out criteria for setback distances. We disagree with it and believe we should go a bit further. It is not a populist position. I explained earlier the amount of land available with even a 2 km setback distance, based on research from National University of Ireland, Maynooth. It is substantial. There are thousands of square kilometres available with a 2 km setback distance. With a 1 km or 1.25 km setback distance, which is what we are talking about, it multiplies several times. Let us blow away the land use argument once and for all. This is not about populism.

On populism, I do not wish to have a go at either Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael but I do want to point out to the Minister of State and Deputy Dooley-----

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