Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The location of wind farms is a sensitive issue. All Deputies in this House will have different views on where the appropriate locations might be. I believe there is a role in this regard for the likes of Bord na Móna's lands in the midlands for wind farms for a variety of reasons. First, Bord na Móna has historical experience of working with communities, employing people from communities and getting engineering projects delivered in a way that has the support of local communities. This has been one of the real difficulties we have had with wind farm projects. Equally, these locations tend to be long distances from neighbouring houses or other areas, so these are some of the few areas of the country where we do not have some of the dispersed density of housing.

The Deputy is absolutely correct that we must treat our boglands with the utmost sensitivity. I saw in a similar project already developed by Bord na Móna near the Bog of Allen, and I cannot remember the exact name of the wind farm, while visiting it during its construction phase what I would imagine was a similar approach to that the company will take with this project. The area for the turbines obviously must have foundations in the bog area, extending down into the marl below so there is stability. The rest of these bogs will typically have seen the extraction of the majority of the peat. Once construction has been completed then, as I understand it, this will allow for the rewetting of the vast extent of the area of the bog. A turbine is located within it and there is a need for a road and other infrastructure, but I believe this can be done in a way which will allow for the complex trade-off required in these situations.

We could go with the view that we would have nothing in any of these areas and that we would, instead, put our wind farms elsewhere. There would be difficulties in western mountains and in the south west and north west, and Deputies from there would say they get too large a concentration of wind farms in those areas. I believe that there is a role for wind energy generation in the midlands on the likes of Bord na Móna's lands. This must be undertaken sensitively and planning approval must be got from An Bord Pleanála. This is not a certainty, but I believe the company is right to try.

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