Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Minister of State that, on the two projects I am dealing with at the moment, it is a box-ticking exercise. The first that people knew about it was when a letter came in the door. There was a public meeting coming up, and the day before the public meeting, another drop was put into letter boxes. Any engagement with the agent has consisted of comments such as “I do not know” or “I will come back to you”. I rang the agent for one of the projects about six months ago. I posed six questions and still await the answers. Effectively what is happening is that what should be a good thing, creating green energy, is being turned into projects that divide communities. We are handling it wrongly. We are ceding control to investors. I am not talking about vulture funds but investors. We do not know who they are. They will not attend a public meeting or make their case. They are playing mind games, trying to divide communities, setting people against one another and causing division. That is the last thing we need. That is what is happening right now in Clonbern and Belclare, where both these projects are taking place. Farmers are also being hoodwinked. It is wrong and needs immediate action.

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