Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today I want to raise an issue that is affecting many communities around this country. Outside on Kildare Street today, hundreds of people have gathered from 18 counties representing probably 50 community action groups regarding the development, proposed or otherwise, of wind farms across this country. It is unbelievable to think that the communities have to come together. They have formed an alliance called the Community Environmental Protection Alliance, CEPA.

The problem is that we have sleep-walked our way into providing wind farms all over this country to provide green energy. This agenda that we need green energy at any cost is being led by some politicians and also by the media. What is being proposed in many of the communities around our country is not a just transition. It is not the way to go. It is actually creating more problems that we will have inquiries about in ten to 15 years' time as to how we did these things.

If you take children with autism, the noise coming from these wind turbines can have an effect on them. The legal requirements are not being met on the ground when wind farms are being put in place.

The people who are outside the gates of Leinster House today are not left wing and they are not right wing. They are actually normal, ordinary people who took a day off work today to come up here to make a statement to the politicians that we have got to look at what we are at in terms of wind development.

One goes back to the regulations we have. The guidelines are there since 2006, a time when a wind turbine had a height of approximately 80 m. Today the proposals are at a height of 180 m, completely out of sync with any kind of recognition for what was there 15 years ago. The environment protection is there and the EU habitats directive is there but they are not being put in place correctly. Developers who have plenty of money can put in a submission, as they did in Belclare, of over 4,000 pages to An Bord Pleanála and expect the local community group to be able to decipher all of that and to come up with a counterargument without any funds, resources or expertise but, my God, today these people have made a statement. They are not going to take this lying down.

When the Taoiseach came into office, he stated that he needs to connect with the ordinary people. I would suggest that we make engagement with CEPA to sit down with them. They are ordinary people, they are working people and they are taxpayers but what they want to make sure is that the environment and the places in which they live and bring up their children will be safe and to protect generations to come.

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